In dire circumstances, a vampire queen may choose to "swarm" and leave her hive with her brood of vampires. An older queen must find and claim a new location within a matter of hours, or risk perishing due to over exposure to the sunlight. A newly made queen has months to settle into a hive. Swarming is particularly distressing to a queen, as the tether to her territory must be broken and reforged. (It may be noted, however, that roves like Lord Akeldama may swarm as he did in Blameless, but there is not the same urgency behind finding a new location as there is in a traditional hive, likely due to a fewer amount of vampires being relocated, and the tether being weaker).
The swarming vampire becomes physically panicky, showing jerky movements and startling easily.