A swarm of European honey bees (Apis mellifera) walking into an empty hive. Swarming is the method by which honey bee colonies divide, resulting in the creation of an additional colony or colonies. The queen bee leaves the hive with a large number of worker bees, and the swarm forms a mass on a branch or similar location, before relocating to an appropriate cavity to build a new colony. While a swarm is massed on a branch, a beekeeper can collect it in a box and tip it out onto a ramp next to an empty hive. The bees will often walk into the hive of their own accord, as seen here.