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Author Topic: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.  (Read 23395 times)

Van, Arkansas, USA

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Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« on: April 08, 2018, 06:19:19 pm »
I believe most beeks are familiar with the waggle dance of a bee which directs other forage bees to a good source, (telling) the forage gees the DISTANCE and DIRECTION of the food source.

I intend to explain this dance very simply:

First DISTANCE.  This is easy, one second of waggles for each 3,300 feet (1000 meters.) Pay attention to only the waggle time, that is the length of time the bee shakes, waggles it?s abdomen.  After the waggle the bee will make a loop either to the right or left and return to its original position and waggle again and again.  For distance pay no attention to the loops, only the length of time of the waggling abdomen.  Two seconds of waggle equals 6,600 ft, 2000 meters, over a mile.

If a beeks feed the bees in the apiary the waggle is instant,,,,a split second,  that is such a quick waggle as the dance looks more like a figure 8, because the distance is so short, only feet away.

Second DIRECTION.  The waggling bee will always waggle in the same direction, again, pay no attention to the loops the bees make, note only the direction of the waggling bee.  The direction of the waggling is the direction from the sun.

With your mind, draw a line as the bee waggles, the waggles will always be the same direction.  A bee picks a starting point, waggles in a specific direction, then loops either to the right or left does not matter and returns to the same starting point to waggle in the same direction, again loops to the same starting point and waggles over and over IN THE SAME DIRECTION.

So: if the bee is waggling straight up on a verticle frame that means the direction of food is straight towards the sun, so fly towards the sun.  If the bee waggles straight down on a frame that means the food source is away from the sun, or fly with the sun to your back to reach the food source.

If the waggle dance forms a line straight in the middle of the frame say to the right then that means exit the hive and fly to the right 90 degrees to the sun or east of the hive.

If the waggle line is to the left or directly horizontal to the frame, that means West, 90 degrees.

So if a bee waggles  one second and the dance is straight DOWN on a frame, then the food source is appropriately 3300 feet directly away from the sun.

Waggle straight up, straight towards the sun.
Waggle straight down, away from the sun, opposite the sun.
Waggle to the right, fly out of the hive and go right of the sun, the precise angle.
Waggle to the left, fly out of the hive and go left of the sun......

What is important is to note the waggle only, just the time and direction.  Pay no attention to the loops as the bee returns to the same starting point, the waggles only indicates direction and distance.
If I have caused confusion, please advise, I find it difficult to critique my own writings.

To simplify mankind orientates direction  via a compass with reference to the North where as bees orientate direction via the sun.  Now what is really amazing is a honey bee can accommodate for the sun rising and falling according to the time of day with the waggle dance cause early morning Sun is way different direction as a setting sun.  Just ingenious little critters.

Wish all health and prosperity.
Blessings



It does not matter which way the hive entrance faces, only the direction of the waggle dance.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2018, 06:35:22 pm by Van, Arkansas, USA »

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2018, 07:22:54 pm »
Van,
I have known the basics for a long time but not the actual distance in feet. Thanks. I think we should make this a stickie. I will contact Robo and see what he thinks.
Jim
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Van, Arkansas, USA

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2018, 08:11:34 pm »
You just made my day, Jim.
Blessings

Offline eltalia

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2018, 10:34:42 pm »
Van,
I have known the basics for a long time but not the actual distance in feet.
Thanks. I think we should make this a stickie. I will contact Robo and see what he thinks.
Jim

Concur Jim.. tho' I too aint so sure about the distances there
being 5280' in a mile and > 1.5km in a mile.
AFAIAA.. EHB will do 5km max under stress, foraging I would
hesitate to put a number on it.
I took the numbers Van gave as example only, not something
fixed in stone.

Bill

Offline bwallace23350

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2018, 11:26:36 pm »
Great info.

Offline Robo

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2018, 11:57:21 pm »
Van,
I have known the basics for a long time but not the actual distance in feet. Thanks. I think we should make this a stickie. I will contact Robo and see what he thinks.
Jim

Done :happy:
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2018, 12:16:30 am »
Thanks Rob.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Offline Skeggley

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2018, 10:14:39 am »
Brilliant, even the bees work with the metric system.

Thanks Van.

Offline Robo

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2018, 10:36:47 am »
Brilliant, even the bees work with the metric system.

Thanks Van.

Funny,  that was the first thing I thought of when I read it too. :rolleyes:
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline capt44

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2018, 12:08:43 pm »
What happens on warm days and the bees are feeding on fermented sugar syrup and get tipsy.
The bees will be flying everywhere and the waggle dancer will be in the hive giggling.
Just a thought I had.
But it is good information.
Richard Vardaman (capt44)

Offline JackM

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2018, 10:15:45 am »
Very cool. 

What is your source of this information?  Did you discover this?  If so how did you follow/isolate one bee?  Not trying to be a dick, which it probably sounds like, I am truly interested in how this was figured out.
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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #11 on: April 10, 2018, 10:39:03 am »
Karl von Frisch figured it out and wrote several papers on the topic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_Frisch
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #12 on: April 10, 2018, 10:45:20 am »
Very cool. 

What is your source of this information?  Did you discover this?  If so how did you follow/isolate one bee?  Not trying to be a dick, which it probably sounds like, I am truly interested in how this was figured out.

Capt,
Several years ago a team was studying the dance and put numbers on the backs of a lot of bees and had feeder stations at set coordinates. They had one person watching the bees on the comb, one at the entrance marking the time a bee left and returned and a person at each feed station marking arrival and departure times.
I do not recall that they provided the time per second on the video.
I will see if I can find the video and add a link.
Jim
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #13 on: April 10, 2018, 10:58:52 am »
Here is a write up of the study. The first part is about crows, scroll down for the bee dance study.
https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~ksoma/306.15%20Spr17%20Feeding%20Behavior%201.pdf
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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #14 on: April 10, 2018, 11:12:31 am »
Here is the link I was looking for. It does have the travel time included.
https://youtu.be/Vaszh2bY3mc
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #15 on: April 10, 2018, 11:16:38 am »
Sorry, wrong link.
Try this one:
https://youtu.be/bFDGPgXtK-U
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #16 on: April 10, 2018, 11:55:41 am »
Very good information here, thanks to all.
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Van, Arkansas, USA

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #17 on: April 11, 2018, 10:23:01 am »
Jim, perfect video, good link, works.  Thanks Buddy.
Blessings

Offline eltalia

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #18 on: April 11, 2018, 06:00:51 pm »
:thumbs up:

That ones a keeper :-))
Thankyou Jim.

Bill

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #19 on: April 13, 2019, 03:28:34 pm »
Hi there,
There You can see dance explaination too.
I have recorded this in february:
https://youtu.be/Rrl26M0cwGc

hope U enjoy it.
You can watch Your bees any time You want just from Your flat...
Check on www.windowbee.com

Offline Nock

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #20 on: June 20, 2019, 11:38:03 pm »
I seen this today. I was watching a new bee emerging. She came out and another came by and started the dance. Amazing sight.

Offline Duane

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #21 on: April 24, 2020, 11:15:37 am »
Quote
If the waggle dance forms a line straight in the middle of the frame say to the right then that means exit the hive and fly to the right 90 degrees to the sun or east of the hive.
I'm having trouble understanding why that wouldn't be to the "west".  Or that it would be unable to determine from the information given. 

Assuming northern hemisphere, at midday, in March, the sun is to the south, to the right would be west.
If it was morning, right be south/southwest?  And evening would be north/northeast?

Offline little john

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #22 on: November 23, 2020, 08:47:09 am »
Quote
If the waggle dance forms a line straight in the middle of the frame say to the right then that means exit the hive and fly to the right 90 degrees to the sun or east of the hive.
I'm having trouble understanding why that wouldn't be to the "west".  Or that it would be unable to determine from the information given. 

Assuming northern hemisphere, at midday, in March, the sun is to the south, to the right would be west.
If it was morning, right be south/southwest?  And evening would be north/northeast?

I really wouldn't worry too much about such details - for there's a LOT more to this than meets the eye.
BTW Van - nice link - and a subject well-worth a 'sticky'.  :smile:

I remember watching a video some time ago in which a professor here in England was boasting to his students that "we know" how bees navigate - and he gave the Waggle Dance as an example.  Well, I fell about laughing at such an arrogant assertion. Sure - the Waggle Dance tells us 'something' - but what ?

There's no denying that direction and distance are somehow being communicated - but how ?  The Waggle Dance gives us only a glimpse of this - as we have determined this info from our 'Bird's-Eye' view of bees in action. Bees don't have the ability to view the Dance like that of course, for they are down there 'on the crowded dance-floor' ...

Imagine you were dancing away at a crowded discotheque, shoulder-to-shoulder with other dancers, each person jostling against others. A short distance away is someone who is trying to communicate something to other people by their animated movements. Is it realistic that you would be able to detect any of the 'message', amongst that jostling crowd ?  Let's be even more realistic - and conduct this exercise in the pitch dark. There's no obvious way that navigational information is being communicated by visual means alone - that is, as we humans are seeing it.

Back to that professor (who had probably better remain nameless).  Even when bees somehow communicate the distance and direction to their target, the mystery of their navigational ability doesn't end there ...

... because direction is referenced to the sun, which continues to move across the heavens, and so the bee must somehow compensate for this moving reference. Distance too poses a problem, for the bee is unable to measure distance - all it can estimate is flight time.

And finally we come to a real puzzle. Anyone who has studied navigation within the air or at sea, knows only too well the problem of cross-track error (XTE).
For anyone not conversant with this - imagine a gentle breeze of (say) 6 knots blowing directly across the path a bee is to follow towards it's target destination. If the bees' flight time is 10 minutes, then if no adjustment is made, then the bee will end-up one mile downwind of it's target. A flight time of 5 minutes, then half-a mile. This error distance will be repeated on the return journey.

And yet the bee - who can return to it's hive with an accuracy of less that an inch - can somehow compensate for all of these navigational challenges: initial communication of target coordinates; a moving reference; the measurement of distance travelled, and appropriate compensation for whatever cross-winds may occur - even if the strength of a cross-wind may change during flight. And all this with extremely poor eyesight when compared to our own.

The honeybee possesses an incredible ability to navigate within a world we do not yet understand. The Waggle Dance gives us but a small and tantalising glimpse into that world.
'best,
LJ
A Heretics Guide to Beekeeping - http://heretics-guide.atwebpages.com

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #23 on: November 23, 2020, 02:55:25 pm »
LJ,
Since we know that bees can see a solar grid, it seems likely that the information passed is not distance or travel time but solar lines crossed and angle to the pattern?
After reading your logic this seems very possible.
Jim Altmiller
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Offline Duane

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #24 on: July 16, 2021, 08:08:37 pm »
So, in the northern hemisphere, if a bee does a waggle dance to the left at noon, does that mean the source is East, not West?  Or do we really know?

And does it matter whether it's morning, noon, or evening as to the meaning of the direction?

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #25 on: July 25, 2021, 04:45:28 pm »
The angle is always in relation to the current position of the sun in whatever hemisphere and even at night when it's on the other side of the earth.
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Offline beehappy1950

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #26 on: September 27, 2023, 12:05:43 pm »
Not to rain on anybodies parade but what good does it do to translate if you cant speak their language. Now if you go to Wallyworld and buy a bee costume and go do a waggle dance in your apiary (hopefully nobody is watching or soon you may be wearing a straight jacket for scaring little kids) and them bees go out and start splitting and stacking your wood supply then you might just have something . Me thinks somebody needs a hobby. :wink: :wink:

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Re: Waggle dance of a bee: explained.
« Reply #27 on: September 28, 2023, 10:09:09 am »
lol  :grin: :wink: I appreciate your good humor beehappy1950.  I must confess before I read Mr Vans good explanation of the waggle dance, I myself was wondering why they were doing it.

Phillip
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