whatA honeybee swarm choosing a new home. Scouts dance for the sites they have seen, and the swarm picks the best one, though no single bee ever visits two sites to compare them.

whySeeley's house-hunting bees are a working democracy without a chairman. The piece shows how a group can decide better than any member, using nothing but enthusiasm that fades and a way to say stop.

howScouts fly out, inspect a candidate site, and come home to dance for it. The better the site, the longer the dance, and every round a scout dances a little less. A dance recruits watchers to go and judge that site with their own eyes. A scout committed to one site head-butts dancers for another, and enough butting stops a dance early. When enough scouts are present at one site at once, they pipe, and the whole swarm lifts off for it.