How Do Bees Communicate?

A honey bee returns from a patch of flowers. Soon, she starts moving across the honeycomb. She is not dancing to music. Her movements can help other honey bees find food.

Honey bees communicate through movements and chemical signals. One famous example is the waggle dance. It carries information about the direction and distance of a useful food source.

What does the dance look like?

During part of the dance, the bee moves forwards and shakes her body. This part is called the waggle run. She then turns and comes back to start another run.

The repeated pattern can look rather like a figure of eight. Nearby bees follow the dancer closely. The activity happens on the comb inside the hive, where many bees live together.

Imagine finding a wonderful picnic spot. You might tell a friend which way to go and how far to walk. A honey bee cannot give spoken directions, but her dance provides useful clues.

What information does it carry?

The direction of the waggle run is linked to the direction of the food. The bee uses the position of the sun as a reference. Inside a hive with an upright comb, the dance turns that information into an angle on the comb.

The time spent on the waggle run also matters. A longer run generally tells the other bees that the food is farther away. It is the length of time, not simply a louder buzz, that carries this distance information.

This does not mean every following bee will land on exactly the same flower. The dance guides a search. Smells from the flowers can also help bees find the food when they reach the area.

Are movements the only messages?

Honey bees also use chemicals called pheromones. These chemicals can affect how other bees behave. For example, alarm signals can warn other bees about danger near their home.

Flower smells and pheromones are different clues. A flower smell can help identify food. A pheromone is a chemical signal produced by a bee. The bees do not need words for these signals to be useful.

Do all bees dance this way?

No. The waggle dance described here belongs to honey bees. There are many other kinds of bees, and their lives are not all the same. We should not use one example to describe every bee.

Researchers study honey bee dances to learn where the bees search for food. By watching carefully, they can connect movements in the hive with places in the surrounding landscape.

You can watch bees visiting flowers from a safe distance. Leave their nests alone and never open a hive to look for a dance. A small movement can carry a useful message, even when no voice speaks.