As the worker bee returns to her hive after a successful foraging trip, she communicates the location of the food source to her nest mates by performing what is called the Waggle Dance. The dancing bee usually performs the dance on the comb in the hive and communicates the direction of the food source relative to the position of the sun, with the sun’s position always being in line with the vertical axis of the comb. The dance is performed in a figure eight pattern with the location of the food source being the direction of the straight run of the bee where she is “waggling” relative to the position of the sun.

In our video Waggle Dance 1 the bee’s straight waggle run is approximately 45 degrees to the left of vertical which means the food source is approximately 45 degrees to the left of the position of the sun. In our video Waggle Dance 2 the straight “Waggle” run is approximately 45 degrees to the right of vertical which means that her food source is approximately 45 degrees to the right of the sun’s position.

Amazingly the bees can determine the position of the sun even on overcast days and account for its westward movement of 1 degree every four minutes during the course of the day!

The dancing bee communicates the distance from the hive to the food source by the number of straight runs she makes in 15 seconds - the more the number of runs the closer the food source. The length of the straight run also increases with the distance of the food from the hive. The following chart can be used to approximate the distance of the food source from the hive based on the number of straight runs in 15 seconds: