Confirmation of Waggle Dance

[Kris^]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4536127.stm

(better than barcodes!)


-- Kris

[Miss Chick-a-BEE]

Good story. Bees are so fasinating.

Not to long back I was sitting on my father-in-law's back porch. There were a couple of nearly empty soda cans sitting near us, and some bees found it. Shortly after there were MANY bees around it. So he took the cans and set them up on the fence away from us for the bees to take what was in the cans.
The bees continued to come to our table looking for the soda. He said "dumb bees, the cans are over there, can't you smell that?". I had to let him know that the bees were actually not dumb at all, but following the instructions given to them in the hive by the waggle dance. I find following that dance to show more intelligence than going by smell alone. I felt sorta sorry for the bees searching near us, because after coming right to the correct spot, tried seaching within a 2 foot range to see if maybe they had it a little off.
It took a little while, maybe 15 minutes, before they stopped buzzing around us. But with watching them, I saw they they didn't go directly to the soda after leaving us. They returned to the hive it seemed. After a little bit, I guess a new scout found the soda, and they started going there.

Beth