Dance, Dance!

When you've found or done something great, what is the first thing you do when you get home? You tell your siblings, mom, or dad about it, right? Well, honeybees have a really interesting way to communicate!

To tell their sisters where a source of pollen (see below) or nectar is, honeybees dance! When one foraging honeybee finds a field full of blooming wildflowers, an apple orchard, or strawberry patch, she flies back to the hive, gives the other bees a taste of the nectar or pollen, and begins a "waggle dance". Scientists studied life inside the hive for a long time to discover the waggle dance, a series of circles and shakes to give her sisters directions to that pollen. In the picture, some preschool students are showing me their best bee dances!

"Bee in the Know": Honeybees dance to show other foragers where a source of pollen/nectar is in relation to the hive and the position of the sun.