How do bees communicate with each other?

Bees communicate with each other primarily through a fascinating behavior known as the "waggle dance." When a forager bee finds a good food source, she returns to the hive and performs this dance on the honeycomb to share detailed information about the location of the food with her nestmates. The waggle dance consists of a series of movements in a figure-eight pattern. The key part is the "waggle run," where the bee waggles her body while moving in a straight line. The direction of this waggle run relative to the vertical comb indicates the direction of the food source in relation to the sun. For example, if the bee waggles straight upward, it means the food is located in the direction of the sun. If she waggles at a 60-degree angle to the right of vertical, the food source lies 60 degrees to the right of the sun’s position. The duration of the waggle run encodes the distance to the food source—the longer the waggle, the farther away the food is. Besides direction and distance, the dance also conveys information about the quality of the food through the intensity and repetition of the dance. Other bees observing the dance pick up these signals through their antennae and body contact, allowing them to navigate efficiently to the food source. This remarkable communication system enables the colony to exploit resources effectively and helps maintain the hive’s productivity.