Bee Dance - The Art of Honey

Dancing Bees

How to find great flowers and new homes – The speech of the bees is dancing

The waggle dance tells the forager bees how far away the flowers are, and in what direction to fly.

If the bees must fly in the direction of the sun they must fly in the opposite direction. If it goes right, that means the flowers are to the right of the sun, and if it goes left, they are to the left.

If the plants are near the hive, they dance in a circle. If it’s further away, they must tell the other bees how far to fly and in what direction. They do this by performing a ‘waggle dance‘ that follows a figure-of-eight shape.

The area around the hive is patrolled by scout bees around the clock. When they find a good source of nectar or pollen, they tell the other bees of their discovery by doing a special dance on the honeycomb. This round dance tells the forager bees that there are flowers nearby.

..more Waggle Dance

The longer the waggle dance goes on, the longer the distance to the flowers.

In simplifies terms, one second of waggeling represents 100 meters of flight. As it is dark in the hive, the other bees can´t see the scout dance. They can only sense its movements and listen to its hum, but this is enough for them to get the information they need.