Honey bees vote to decide on nest sites – why we should listen

When people think of honey bees, they often think of classic wooden hives, in which beekeepers are having to breed more and more bees just to keep managed populations stable. These man-made boxes, designed to facilitate pollination and honey production in an era before animal welfare was considered, are the hives in which scientists study honey bees.

However, these boxes have little in common with the wild nests that featured in honey bee evolution. Are we are missing...