How do honey bee scouts tell their colony that they have found a good place to build a new hive
Honey bee scouts communicate the location of a potential new hive site to their colony through a system known as the waggle dance. Here's a step-by-step explanation of how this communication process works:
1. The scout bee discovers a promising location, such as a hollow tree or a suitable crevice, suitable for building a new hive. It evaluates the site based on various factors like size, accessibility to resources, and protection from external threats.
2. Upon returning to the colony, the scout bee performs a waggle dance. This is a complex series of movements that conveys information about the location to other worker bees.
3. The scout bee dances on the comb and vibrates its abdomen while making specific movements. These movements include circular or figure-eight patterns, known as the waggle run, and side-to-side movements, known as the waggle dance.
4. The orientation of the waggle run and the duration of the waggle dance convey important information about the location. The angle of the waggle run represents the direction relative to the sun, with respect to gravity. For example, if the scout bee dances vertically upward (towards the top of the comb), it indicates that the new hive location is precisely towards the direction of the sun. If the dance is at a slight angle, it means the hive location is offset from the sun angle accordingly.
5. The distance to the new hive site is indicated by the duration of the waggle dance. The longer the duration, the farther the distance. This communication is based on the concept of "waggle pheromones" emitted by the scout bee that indicate the distance.
6. As the scout bee waggles and dances, other worker bees gather around it, closely following the movements and decoding the information being communicated.
7. The scout bee may also transfer a small sample of nectar collected from the new hive site to the bees around, allowing them to taste and smell it. This provides additional information about the quality and desirability of the location.
8. Bees that have received the information memorize the details and, once their turn to forage comes, they fly out to the area indicated by the dance to further evaluate it and make their own assessment.
9. If multiple scouts find different locations, they may perform the waggle dance simultaneously, competing to convince other bees of their respective sites.
This waggle dance communication system allows honey bees to efficiently share information about potential new hive sites, facilitating consensus among the worker bees on the best location for building a new colony.