Activity: Bee dance

A worker bee returning to the hive will perform a dance to show other bees the location of the flowers she just visited.

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Bee on a white flower in Fitzroy Gardens

Round dance

If the flowers are within 100 metres of the hive, the bee does a round dance on the comb to tell the other bees that food is nearby. She runs in a circle then reverses direction. She also gives off an odour which other bees pick up. They then set off to search near the hive, guided by the odour. This dance may be repeated at different spots in the hive.

Waggle dance

If the flowers are more than 100 metres from the hive, the bee does a more elaborate waggle dance to show the direction and distance of the food source. She circles to the left or right until she has completed a semicircle then runs in a straight line wagging her abdomen from side to side until she reaches the start point of the circle. She then runs in the opposite direction and completes the other semicircle. This dance is repeated many times. The angle at which she waggles on the comb tells other bees the direction in which to fly, relative to the sun’s position. The duration of her straight line ‘waggle’ indicates the distance from the hive to the flowers.

Bees see polarised light, which enables them to navigate even in cloudy weather.