re: Bees ... bees ... bees ...

Bees will "swarm" when the queen of an existing hive feels that she needs more room. Normally, she will kill the larva that the workers feed royal jelly to produce a successor queen. Before a swarm, she allows the royal jelly fed larva to live, so that there will be a successor after she leaves. The first larva out will kill and competitors to her throne.

The old queen, having left with about half the hive worker bees, will be protected in a ball on a tree limb, or some other type of resting spot, while workers scour the area looking for a suitable new home. They are not aggressive at this time, unless you mess with the queen ball. With a new home located, and communicated to the hive by means of a dance (fascinating), they will set up in new location.

Meanwhile, back at the old location, the new queen will take flight for mating. The drones(males) meet her in the air, and one successfully mates with her and explodes, literally. His organs remain in the queen and fertilizes the queen for the rest of her life.

This is their only function, like some male humans(j/k). They cannot even feed themselves. If times are hard on the hive, the female worker bees will push the drones out of the hive, And they die, because they cannot forage for themselves. Good while it lasted.