How Do Bees Know Where to Go When They Leave the Hive?

Imagine you're a bee, and you leave your hive to find flowers. When you come back, you need to remember where the flower was so you can take other bees there too. Bees use something called the waggle dance, it’s like a secret message that tells other bees exactly where the food is. The more excited a bee is about the flower, the more waggles it does, and the farther away the flower is.

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Examples

A bee finds a flower and returns to the hive, doing a little dance that tells other bees exactly where it was.
Another bee sees the dance and follows the same path to find the flower too.
The hive becomes full of bees all going to the same spot because they followed the waggle dance.

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Categories: Biology · bees,navigation,biology,honeybees