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Honey bee dance language

Bees are very good at telling each other where to find good sources of food. They use a special code in the form of  a dance. The dance is performed by a bee who has just returned from foraging. The bee gathers other bees around her and then performs her dance on the comb.
The simplest dance is called a Round Dance. This is performed if a food source is nearby (<80 metres)
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If the source of food is further away, other bees will need more information to find it. If this is the case the returning bee performs a waggle dance. The waggle dance indicates both the direction that the food source is in and the distance away. The bee dances in a figure 8 pattern, waggling in the middle. 
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The orientation of the dance indicates direction and the length of the waggle part of the dance indicates distance.
For example see the picture below. The food source that the bee has found is 94 deg away from the sun to the right. On the comb the bee dances with the waggle part of the dance oriented at 94 deg away from vertical to the right.
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In the next example the bee has found a source of food 20 deg away from the sun. In this case the food is much closer, so the waggle part of the dance is shorter.
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Can you decode a bee dance? Click here to test you skill.


For more information on bee dance language:
  • Dancing Bees
  • Honey Bee Dance Language