BumbleBee Capt 4

BUMBLE BEE COMUNICATION

1. Bumble Bee Communicate with othe Bee by Dancing

Perhaps the most famous and fascinating “language” of the honey bee is communicated

through a series of dances done by foraging worker bees who return to the hive with news of nectar, pollen, or water. The worker bees dance on the comb using precise patterns. Depending upon the style of dance, a variety of information is shared with the honey bees’ sisters. They’re able to obtain remarkably accurate information about the location and type of food the foraging bees have discovered.

Two common types of dances are the so-called round dance and the waggle dance. The round dance communicates that the food source is near the hive (within 10-80 yards). For a food source found at a greater distance from the hive, the worker bee performs the waggle dance. It involves a shivering side-to- side motion of the abdomen, while the bee forms a figure eight. The vigor of the waggle, the number of times it is repeated, the direction of the dance, and the sound the bee makes communicates amazingly precise information about the location of the food source.

2. BUMBLE BEE Comunicate

Honey bees perform a group of movements, called the "waggle dance talk." They do this to inform other worker bees of the exact location of the food source. Some of these locations can be up to five hundred feet from their hive. Honey bees fly from their colony looking for nectar and pollen. When they are successful in locating good food supplies, they then return to their hive and performs a dance on the honeycomb. At first, the bee walks a straight line while shaking its abdomen vigorously. The bee also makes a buzzing sound with its wings. The speed and distance of the movement conveys the distance of where the food source is so other bees can find it. Communicating the path to follow is more complex because the bee performing the waggle dance talk will align their body in the exact direction of where the food is accordance with the sun. The dance pattern looks like a figure-eight, as the honey bee keeps repeating the straight part of the movement every time it circles back to the center area again.