The temperature increase at one position in the colony can predict honey bee swarming (Apis cerana)

Although swarming is a natural biological behavior of the honey bee, it significantly influences the production of honey bee products. In this short note, we measured temperature changes of entire Eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) nests during six swarming events. We found that there was a linear heating process before swarming initiated, furthermore, a specific location with the most apparent temperature increase was identified. It lies at the bottom part of the bee space between the wall of the hive and the first frame, which was towards the nest entrance. The mean heating rates before swarming was initiated at 0.0690 ± 0.0314 °C/min until a faster speed of 0.3139 ± 0.1343 °C/min followed. A method for predicting swarming of Apis cerana was proposed.