The dance is a complex behavioral mechanism used by foraging honey bees to tell their hive mates where to find nectar, pollen, or water. By moving in specific geometric patterns on the vertical comb, the dancing bee encodes the distance and direction to the resource relative to the sun's position. Beekeepers observe these movements to gauge foraging activity and understand where the colony is feeding.
Heard on the job
Look at the frame here, you can see a forager doing an intense waggle dance, so there must be a strong nectar flow nearby.
Also heard as
- waggle dance
- round dance