Colony: A community of bees that has established residency for a period of time. Fairly permanent residence marked by construction of comb to support development of new bees and storage of food resources.
Swarm: A temporary cluster of bees that remains tightly clumped together for several hours to several days while scout bees search surroundings for a more habitable/permanent location. Once the scout bees identify a better location, they quickly depart leaving only a handful of scout bees that were in another location when the main swarm departed.
