MINIBEASTS

Honeybees talk to each other by dancing.

A "waggle dance" tells the hive the exact direction and distance to the best flowers.

1 min read
Two cheerful cartoon bees perform a lively dance on a grassy patch, with a bright flower and a vibrant polka-dot background.
THE FULL STORY

When a honeybee finds a great patch of flowers, it flies home and performs a “waggle dance” on the honeycomb to tell the others where to go.

The direction the bee waggles shows the direction to the flowers compared to the Sun, and the length of the waggle tells the others how far away they are. It’s a real, coded language made of movement.

The watching bees feel these moves in the dark hive and then fly straight out to the food - sometimes more than half a mile away.