Very Interesting site. You appear to be doing good work. Just one comment. You stated that the new queen took a look around and saw the hive was full and decided to leave. The adjacent picture shows a large swarm hanging. It turns out that the older queen leaves before the new queens hatch, or just as she hatches. So the swarm contains the old queen, many foragers and many nurse bees. The virgin queen in the hive then leaves to "mate". She returns and begins laying and if all the timing is correct, the hive survives.

There are a small number of "foragers" that are more curious than the rest, about 6%. This is new. The curious foragers are the ones that look most aggressively for a new hive location. It may take two or three days, then the hive moves to its new home.

You have probably got hundreds of emails on this "who leaves first" question. I hope mine was useful.

Tom Mock at tommock@comcast.net