What happens to the Queen Bee when the hive becomes to damaged to be inhabitible?

Question

What happens to the Queen Bee when the hive becomes to damaged to be inhabitible?

Answer 1

She, and all her workers, "swarm".  They fly in a mass to a new location.  If they cannot immediately find one, they reform their mass, with the queen in the center for protection, on a tree branch or under an awning, or anywhere they feel comfortable.  It resembles a "nest" of living bees all in one big clump.  If you ever see a swarm mass like this, do NOT approach to closely or try and touch it.  They are VERY protective in this state and are on constant guard against any threat to their queen.

Answer 2

Nothing.  The workers repair it.  What YOU might think in uninhabitable and what THEY think is uninhabitable are different.  Queens can live as long as 15 years.  The workers, all sterile females live barely the season.

The above respondents have it a bit incorrect:.....

Bees swarm in the spring because there are simply too many bees for the hive.  The old queen, and part of the hive leave, to find a new home.  The new queen stays in the old hive.  If the workers have made two queens the one first hatched finds the cell of the other, and stings her to death.  If they emerge together they fight.  If they are both killed, the workers change the formula of one or two or even three of the other cells to make a new queen.  It's fascinating stuff.  

In the spring, my dad would go to all of his hives, and either add to them with another box, or kill the new queen or take that cell, and put it in a new box, with a set of worker bees. Some of his hives were several "stories" high.  And he would often replace the queens himself with a more vigorous line... Sears would ship him a new queen cell.  When he placed her in the hive, he had to be sure she  would be there for several days so that the cell she was in  would pick up the aroma of that hive...so that the workers would accept her... As well, he had to get rid of the queen before he did that... as I said, fascinating stuff.

Answer 3

they go find a new home