The Waggle Dance: How Honeybees Communicate

Have you ever wondered how honeybees find their way to the best flowers and nectar sources? How do they share this information with their hive mates? The answer is: they dance!

Honeybees are amazing creatures that have a unique method of communication called the waggle dance. This is a special figure-eight dance that honeybees perform inside the hive to tell other bees where to find food, water, or a new home.

What is the Waggle Dance?

The waggle dance consists of two parts: the waggle run and the return loop. The waggle run is the central part of the dance, where the bee waggles her abdomen from side to side while moving forward in a straight line.

The return loop is the part where the bee circles back to the starting point of the waggle run, either to the right or to the left.

The direction and duration of the waggle run are very important, as they convey the direction and distance of the food source. The direction of the waggle run is relative to the sun.

For example, if the bee waggles straight up on the vertical comb, it means that the food source is directly towards the sun. If the bee waggles at an angle to the right of the vertical, it means that the food source is to the right of the sun, and so on.

The duration of the waggle run indicates the distance of the food source. The longer the waggle run, the farther the food source. For example, a waggle run of one second means that the food source is about 750 meters away.

The bees that watch the waggle dance can decode this information and fly to the food source following the same direction and distance as the dancer.

They can also smell the nectar that the dancer brings back to the hive and taste it by receiving a sample from the dancer. This helps them to recognize the type and quality of the food source.

Why do Honeybees Waggle Dance?

Honeybees waggle dance for several reasons.

The most common one is to share the location of a good food source, such as a patch of flowers with abundant nectar and pollen. By doing this, the bees can recruit more foragers to collect more food for the hive.

Another reason is to share the location of a water source, which is essential for the survival of the colony, especially in hot and dry weather. Water is used to cool down the hive, dilute the honey, and feed the larvae.

A third reason is to share the location of a new nest site, when the colony decides to swarm and look for a new home. The scout bees that find a suitable cavity will waggle dance to persuade other bees to follow them and inspect the site.

The more bees agree on a site, the more intense and frequent the waggle dance becomes, until a consensus is reached and the swarm takes off.

How did we Learn about the Waggle Dance?

The waggle dance was discovered by a famous Austrian scientist named Karl von Frisch, who won the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his work on animal behaviour.

He was the first to decode the meaning of the waggle dance and to prove that honeybees can communicate complex information through this dance.

He conducted many experiments with honeybees, such as marking them with coloured dots, observing them under artificial light, and relocating them to different places.

He also used a glass observation hive to record and measure the waggle dance. He published his findings in a book called “The Dancing Bees” in 1953, which is considered a classic in the field of ethology.

Conclusion

The waggle dance is a fascinating example of how honeybees communicate and cooperate with each other. It shows that honeybees are not only hardworking and productive, but also intelligent and creative.

By learning more about the waggle dance, we can appreciate the beauty and complexity of the natural world, and the importance of protecting the honeybees and their environment.

We hope you enjoyed this article and learned something new about the waggle dance.

If you are interested in buying pure and delicious honey from our family beekeeping business, please visit our Shopat honeybeeproducts.co.uk. Thank you for your support! 🐝

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