I found this reference to colonies combining:

> In Africa, small colonies combine to form huge swarms as large as 610 liters, containing up to 500 mated queens (Silberrad 1976). MM Boreham - Bulletin of the ESA, 1987

Whoa!

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm