Bees dance to communicate to other bees in their colony where food sources can be found, possible new homes, etc. The dance is called a 'waggle dance', it's fascinating! A bee returns to the hive fully loaded up with honey and pollen and then uses the waggle dance to tell the others the location of where she has just visited. The dancing bee makes a figure eight and waggles her body at the same time to relay information. The information she gives includes the location, quality and quantity of the nectar and pollen.
The direction she waggles indicates the direction of the location in relation to the sun. If the bee waggles straight up the honey comb the other bees fly towards the sun. If she waggles on the left the bees are to fly to the left of the sun and if she waggles to the right they head to the right of the sun.
The rhythm of the dance explains the distance to the location from the hive. The faster she waggles the further away the location is. The pollen and nectar she has collected gives the other bees information on the type of flowers, their quality and quantity. Aren't they clever!
See this Inside Science video.
