The Magic Language of Bees

Buzzing greetings, curious nature enthusiasts! Have you ever wondered how bees communicate with each other? Prepare to be amazed as we dive into the captivating world of bee dances. Today, we’ll unravel the secrets behind the mesmerizing movements of bees and discover how they use their unique language to share important information within their hive. From intricate waggles and figure-eight patterns to the captivating dance floor of the hive, we’ll explore the extraordinary communication system that allows bees to navigate, share directions to nectar sources, and even inform their hive mates about potential dangers. So, put on your imaginary bee wings, join the hive, and let’s buzz our way into the fascinating realm of bee dances!

A healthy colony of honeybees functions as a buzzing, whirring, well-oiled machine. At the peak of summer, a productive hive can have members numbering in the tens of thousands. Beekeepers consider a strong, mature colony to have between 50,000 and 60,000 members. Everyone in the hive has a job, and each does it effectively. Honeybees tirelessly gather nectar, make honey, raise their young and ensure colony survival. At the heart of this exceptional work mentality is effective honeybee communication.

Interpersonal honeybee communication enables the colony to complete tasks, safeguard against potential threats and thrive as the superorganism that it is. Honeybees employ many forms of communication, and each one is fascinating.

Honeybees use all of their senses to find the best flowers, including smell, color, shape, location, petal textures, and time of day. But what does a bee do when she wants to tell her sisters what she has discovered?

Honeybees and most insects can see most colors you and I see—green, blue, and violet. Honeybees cannot discriminate reds very well, but in exchange they can see ultraviolet light—the same light we use sunscreen to protect our skin from. Most flowers have taken advantage of this and have ultraviolet patches called nectar guides. These guides help attract bees to land and show the bees where to get nectar.

How does a honeybee tell her sisters when she finds the locations of rewarding flowers, a drinking hole, or even a great new home? She will fly home and dance. That’s right, dance. Experienced bees use the angle of their body relative to the hive ceiling to tell their sisters the direction and approximate distance of whatever they are dancing for. Then the well-informed sisters go off and check out this location for themselves.

Karl von Frisch won the Nobel Prize in 1973 in part for deciphering the language of the bees. In some of his first experiments, he put a honeybee hive in a field with a single nectar feeder for the bees to collect from. Dr. Frisch then sat and watched the bees inside their hive.

After long hours of observation, he noticed the bees doing a waggling behavior inside the hive. He traced and measured animals as they did this behavior throughout the day. By doing this, Dr. Frisch noticed the bees changed the angle that they danced at the same rate as the sun moving through the sky. He discovered the bees were using dance to point their sisters to the sugar feeder relative to the sun. Dr. Frisch and others deciphered other aspects of bee communication. But, there is still much to learn about bees.

In the dark chambers of the honeybee hive, bees don’t rely on their vision to communicate or get around. Instead, they communicate by touch, sound, taste, and pheromones. (Pheromones are a chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal, especially a mammal or an insect, affecting the behavior or physiology of others of its species.)

Food sharing within the hive is constant and integral part of communication. Hungry house bees will stop foragers or other house bees to ask for food and will receive sustenance if it’s available. Food travels through the hive quickly. Because of this, any contamination by pesticide, chemical or other foreign substance makes its way through the hive within 48 hours.

The queen communicates to all the members of the hive through her pheromones. There is a constant flow of communication from the queen and her attendants (several dozen bees that care for her and tend to her needs), sending the queen’s pheromones out through the hive in a ripple effect, through the sense of touch. If the queen were to die, or be replaced, the entire hive would become aware within about 48 hours and sense the changes through the ripple effect of the new queen’s pheromones being transmitted by the new queen and her attendants, several dozen bees that care for her and tend to her needs.

Honeybees have an exceptional sense of smell—one superior to that of mosquitoes or even fruit flies. They prefer sweet smells best of all, which motivates them to visit sweet-smelling flowers in search of nectar. They also use this exceptional sense of smell to pick up their hive mates’ and queen’s pheromones.

Foragers returning from the field communicate with others through a series of movements called waggle dances that share precise geographical locations of excellent forage material. Besides the dances, returning bees share nectar with the new foragers, giving them additional information before they take off on their foraging trips.

The waggle dance isn’t used solely for sharing the location of nectar sources. When honeybees cast a swarm from their mother hive, the swarm sends scout bees in search of a new home. They return from their expeditions with precise information about potential new homesites, and they use the waggle dance to convey this information. The bees then “vote” on the best location relayed by the scouts and take off as a single unit to call the site home.

Researchers have spent decades studying the fascinating ways honeybees communicate. In a family unit of tens of thousands of individuals, bees share precise information, make big decisions that affect the entire colony and support one another for the greater good.

We could learn a lot from the individual honeybee and her hive mates.

AIME