Why do bees dance?
Talk about it together
If you could make a dance-map, where would it lead?
What about...?
Ask your child's own question
Transcript
Inside a busy beehive, bees crawl over wax rooms. What are those wiggly bees telling one another?
A honeybee returning to the hive may wiggle across the upright honeycomb, then loop around and wiggle again. This is called a waggle dance.
The wiggle's angle can point to a direction from the hive, using the sun as a guide. Its length can tell how far away the flowers are.
Other bees follow closely and feel the angle and length of the wiggle. They can use those clues to fly toward the flowers.
So, a bee's dance can be a tiny map for other bees. Scientists are still figuring out how much bees use it.
For grown-ups: the science
Honeybees can use a waggle dance to share clues about the direction and distance of flowers.
Foraging honeybees perform waggle dances on vertical comb. The angle of the waggle run relative to upward on the comb corresponds to the food source's direction relative to the sun, and the run's duration generally relates to distance. Followers sense the dancer's movements and may use this information when leaving the hive. Nobody knows for sure how much bees rely on dance direction in natural conditions compared with scent cues and independent searching. Scientists also continue to study whether dances communicate food quality or urgency, and what other dance-like behaviors mean.