Hive war.

[Corporal Hicks]

For a species so single mindedly focused on survival - killing each other makes no sense whatsoever,

Maybe it's survival of the hive though? We've never seen different hives interact. 

[Dr. Wren]

I'd like to see 2 queens, and some difference in design with the two hives, so you can tell which is which.

[Xenomorphine]

I perceive them building super-colonies, which is a legitimate phenomenon in the animal kingdom: Different nests don't compete, they co-ordinate for the good of all.

If Aliens were political, they'd be Communists.

[aliensetta]

For a species so single mindedly focused on survival - killing each other makes no sense whatsoever,

But If you put two queens on a planet they are going to fight and if the queen doesn't like the other hive she will start a war. Hive war. Its not to hard to believe that two hives are going to end fighting each other. A lot of animals who have similar behavior to aliens fight each other So why should aliens be any different.

[Meathead320]

For a species so single mindedly focused on survival - killing each other makes no sense whatsoever,

See, we agree on some things.

[Meathead320]

But If you put two queens on a planet they are going to fight and if the queen doesn't like the other hive she will start a war. Hive war. Its not to hard to believe that two hives are going to end fighting each other. A lot of animals who have similar behavior to aliens fight each other So why should aliens be any different.

No, I do not think there is an "only one Queen" per planet rule.

Likely they would spread like (and I hate to have to compare them to it again) ants.

The Queens would periodically lay eggs for new queens, and all over the place you would get new hives.

Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of hives, all with their own Queen.

Maybe there would be one uber Queen, a Giant version (maybe a few times larger) of the Regular Bitch, one that is like a telepathic hub for all the regular Queens. Again it is a Maybe.

Maybe there is no need for her, as the HUB is all I can think of for such a purpose.

With no purpose in their lifecycle, then there is no existence of such caste.

Any way, back to the point, for the run of the mill, egg laying mamma, there can be many.

[aliensetta]

The Queens would periodically lay eggs for new queens, and all over the place you would get new hives.

You left out one very important fact when ants, bee's and wasps do that the new queen fly's away from the hive/ nest as possible so they will not have any comparison for food and space from the old hive/nest and if there isn't any more room for new hives/nests away from other hives/nests then they will have to compete with each other for food and space which will at some point start a war.

[Predboy]

A hive war? Two alien hives tearing each other aprt just for some space, from blood spraying everywhere to bodies flying in the air with holes in their heads, pretty interesting.

[aliensetta]

Two alien hives tearing each other aprt just for some space,

And for host's. 

[Meathead320]

You left out one very important fact when ants, bee's and wasps do that the new queen fly's away from the hive/ nest as possible so they will not have any comparison for food and space from the old hive/nest and if there isn't any more room for new hives/nests away from other hives/nests then they will have to compete with each other for food and space which will at some point start a war.

That is true for insects. Aliens may have SOME similarity to them, but that is where it ends. Queens making new Queens to help populate a planet makes sense for them.

Other insect traits do not.

They are not Insects. They are not bugs.

[SiL]

Heck, why bother with an uber Queen? Just have lots of Queens and Aliens running around doing their well-co-ordinated thing.

I think that if we finally went to the homeworld, though, we'd see the Aliens acting completely differently, probably more like O'Bannon originally intended. All the Aliens we've ever seen have been removed from base Alien society so have to keep going from the ground up.

[SM]

See, we agree on some things.

Common sense prevails.

Aliens would be more likely to work together to achieve a common goal rather than waste their number on infighting.

So why should aliens be any different.

Read the quote above again and take special note of the word that starts with 'a' and ends in 'liens'.

[Fitzley]

I would imagine the aliens in their own environment (if they occur naturally somewhere) probably have something to keep them in check (either predators--no, not from the movie, or the ecology itself).

Most ecosystems develop a balance, the aliens behave kind of like a virus and would wipe out any ecosystem they are introduced into without a check on their expansion. Therefore, if the aliens have a natural predator, different hives probably do not war with one another. Pure speculation of course.

[Xenomorphine]

Why kill one another to salvage more hosts? More numbers being killed would only increase the need for an already depleted resource.

As written above, some insects do work to create super colonies. They don't compete. Others do, but nobody seems to know the reason why.

[Meathead320]

I would imagine the aliens in their own environment (if they occur naturally somewhere) probably have something to keep them in check (either predators--no, not from the movie, or the ecology itself).

Most ecosystems develop a balance, the aliens behave kind of like a virus and would wipe out any ecosystem they are introduced into without a check on their expansion. Therefore, if the aliens have a natural predator, different hives probably do not war with one another. Pure speculation of course.

Maybe the whole hive colective just slows down and hibernates so as not to exaust their own food/host supply.

Either that or they do exhaust their supplies, and then they just rule the planet and wiat for the next unsuspecting space-faring organism to land, get infected, and bring the plauge home in is own chest, the alien plauge to a new world.