Reading the waggle dance

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That’s an early one.
@jenkinsbrynmair
Emyr. You’ll remember. Tom delivered that lecture about the other dances at the WBKA centenary bash in Aber.

yes - he also gave a similar one out in Antrim at the UBKA convention back in February.
I don't recall the bit about the bees packing it in and having an afternoon siesta in either though.

 

[elainemary]

Tom Seeley has written about all the different waggles, shakes, head-butts etc. that the bees perform. I don't have a reference though. Anyone?

THis is a good little book, explains all the dances. ‘The dance of the honey bee’ by Robert Park. Bought it from Northern bee books. Love watching the bees dance & anything to do with bee behaviour. One I learnt about recently after watching a group of bees outside a hive is washboarding. Not really a dance but thought to be about sharing hive odour & marking hives with scent as a way of possibly attracting bees back to the hive.
Elaine

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Just seeing your reference to bees trembling and shaking makes me think that I should qualify my comment of a few moments ago. Perhaps it depends on our definition of the kind of movement that the bee was making. What is the difference between trembling, shaking and waggling? Perhaps the bees' dance language is a lot more sophisticated than I had imagined.

Does it involve their knees?

 

[Erichalfbee]

THis is a good little book, explains all the dances. ‘The dance of the honey bee’ by Robert Park. Bought it from Northern bee books. Love watching the bees dance & anything to do with bee behaviour. One I learnt about recently after watching a group of bees outside a hive is washboarding. Not really a dance but thought to be about sharing hive odour & marking hives with scent as a way of possibly attracting bees back to the hive.
Elaine

Hi Elaine
You say it describes all the dances. Can you post a little review please.

 

[manek]

Tom Seeley has written about all the different waggles, shakes, head-butts etc. that the bees perform. I don't have a reference though. Anyone?

It's in Honeybee Democracy, where he describes how the waggle dance on the surface of the swarm points to a potential hive. He interpreted the dances and succeeded in finding the locations the bees were describing.

 

[polomadh]

It is important to know the differences between the dances, if you happen to be in the brood box. The waggle dance - everything is ok, tremble dance and the head butt stops the dancers. This can be a lack of space or house bees. In order to make the most of available forage if you hear the Buzz, you know its time to get more supers on!

 

[beeno]

and also the dancer will pass 'samples' of the nectar to the audience to tell them what to expect.

This is no longer thought to be the case as most foragers dance before they are unloaded by receiver bees, who are not foragers, and the dance followers in contact with dancer do not get feed.

 

[elainemary]

Following Dani’s request for a short review of the dances in the small booklet I mentioned above, the following are covered:
The Round dance - used to communicate forage is nearby (within 50m of hive but not a specific location; the reason why it’s best to add syrup in the evening to prevent robbing)
The waggle dance - v well covered already in this post. Communicates location of Forage between 65m and 11km. Also used to communicate a new nest site by scout bees during the swarming process
The sickle dance - a transition dance between the round dance and waggle dance but shorter ie 50-65m distances
Marathon dances - last for several hours and keep pace with the movement of the sun, again a forage communication dance
D-VAV dance (dorso- ventral abdominal dance) - regulates queen activities in swarming and in a different context to forage patterns linked to forage availability
Jostling dance - bees jostle others, to let them know a dance is about to begin
Spasmodic dance - similar to the jostling dance involves food distribution interspersed with short tail wagging motions, thought to signify forthcoming information about forage
Buzz run - signals the exit of a swarm. Workers run around the hive in an energetic and random pattern to increase activity of nestmates that lead to flight
Shaking dance - a worker rapidly shakes her body side to side to induce a worker to groom her
Trembling dance - observed when a colony is disturbed, workers twitch and tremble and run about on 4 legs, function is unknown

Wonderful aren’t they!?
Elaine

 

[North End Bees]

In terms of dances related to nectar collecting/storing, the best video has got to be Tom Seeley's
The Bee Colony as a Honey Factory. (One of the NHS videos)

It includes clips of the main dances/signals with beautiful descriptions by Tom. And if you watch to the end he gives you a little quiz to make sure you've been paying attention!

 

[Erichalfbee]

In terms of dances related to nectar collecting/storing, the best video has got to be Tom Seeley's
The Bee Colony as a Honey Factory. (One of the NHS videos)



It includes clips of the main dances/signals with beautiful descriptions by Tom. And if you watch to the end he gives you a little quiz to make sure you've been paying attention!

Thanks little bees.
That’s the talk he gave at the WBKA centenary bash. I’m so glad you found it.