A worker returns to the hive carrying nectar. Another worker receives it, and the forager prepares to leave again. But what happens when returning foragers cannot find enough workers available to receive their nectar? We have explored how the waggle dance communicates the location of productive food sources. Now let's look at another form of communication that helps coordinate work inside the colony. It is called the tremble dance. During this dance, a worker moves slowly across the comb, frequently changing direction while rapidly shaking her body (almost like come on guys follow me). Unlike the waggle dance, she does not follow a repeated figure-eight pattern or communicate the location of a food source. Researchers have found that returning foragers are more likely to perform this dance when they experience long delays finding workers to receive their nectar. The tremble dance can help recruit additional workers to receive nectar. Consider what happens during a strong nectar flow. More foragers return carrying nectar. If the existing receiving workers cannot keep up, unloading delays increase. These delays can stimulate tremble dancing, helping the colony adjust the number of workers receiving nectar. As additional workers become available, unloading delays may decrease. This is an example of feedback within a living biological system. One activity changes conditions inside the colony, and those changing conditions influence what other workers do. The tremble dance can also occur under other foraging conditions, so unloading delays are not its only known trigger. What interests me is how the colony adjusts its workforce without one bee directing the others. Individual workers respond to changing conditions, communicate with nestmates, and collectively influence how the colony functions. Can you think of another situation inside a colony where changing conditions might cause workers to adjust their activities?

A worker returning with pollen is easy to notice although inside the nest, other workers are feeding larvae, cleaning cells, building comb, and processing nectar. These activities happen together, but a worker’s contribution changes through her life. During the active brood-rearing season, young workers generally begin with tasks inside the nest. As they mature, their work often shifts from cleaning and brood care toward other nest duties, then eventually to foraging. Their developing bodies help prepare them for these different tasks. Age provides a pattern, though the timing is flexible. Colony conditions also direct this pattern. Researchers have found that when young workers are removed, some older foragers change jobs back to tending to the brood to sustain the colony. A worker’s role reflects both her own development and the circumstances around her. This helps us see why the colony needs more than bees gathering food. Incoming nectar must be received and processed. Developing larvae need food and care. The work outside depends on work happening within the nest. For us as observers, that raises a useful question. When we watch bees coming and going, we are seeing only part of the colony’s activity. The entrance traffic alone cannot tell us whether brood care, food processing, and other essential work are adequately supported. This week, try following one connection in a clear hive photograph or educational video to identify food arriving, workers handling it, and larvae receiving care. Notice what you can actually see and what remains a question. Which part of a worker bee’s life would you most like to understand better? https://youtu.be/9ePic3dtykk

The flowers remain in the same location, but the sun moves across the sky. A waggle dance pointing toward those flowers in the morning must change its angle later in the day. How does the bee make that adjustment? Honey bees have an internal biological clock that helps them estimate the sun's changing position. This ability is called a time-compensated sun compass. Inside the dark hive, bees use gravity to establish which direction is upward on the vertical comb. This allows them to communicate a direction relative to the sun without seeing it while dancing. But what happens on cloudy days? When patches of sky remain visible, bees can detect patterns of polarized light that provide clues to the sun's position. Under heavy cloud cover, when those clues are unavailable, experienced bees can rely on their memory of the sun's movement in relation to familiar landmarks. This becomes less reliable in unfamiliar surroundings. Bees do not need to dance continuously. Returning foragers can adjust their dance as the day progresses, while workers familiar with a food source may revisit it without following another dance. This demonstrates how bees combine time, memory, and environmental information to navigate and communicate. Once foragers bring nectar home, what happens when it arrives faster than workers inside the hive can receive it?

A worker bee finds a patch of flowers producing plenty of nectar. She collects what she can carry and returns to the hive. But how do other workers learn where that food is located? Honey bees have developed a remarkable way of communicating information about food sources through movement. It is called the waggle dance. When a forager returns from a productive food source, she may begin moving across the surface of the comb in a repeated pattern resembling a figure eight. The important part occurs during a relatively straight movement called the waggle run. As she moves forward, she rapidly shakes her abdomen from side to side. She then circles back to her starting point and repeats the movement. This dance communicates two important pieces of information. Distance: The duration of the waggle run corresponds approximately to how far the resource is from the hive. Longer waggle runs generally indicate greater distances. Direction: The angle of the waggle run communicates the direction of the resource relative to the sun. On a vertical comb, a waggle run directed straight upward represents a resource in the direction of the sun. A run angled to one side represents a corresponding angle away from the sun. Other workers follow the dancer, sensing her movements and vibrations. Not every bee that follows a dance visits the advertised location. The dance provides information that workers can use rather than instructions they must follow. This behavior allows information discovered by an individual forager to influence the activities of other workers. But the sun continues moving across the sky while the flowers remain in the same location. How does a bee keep communicating the correct direction to a food source as the sun's position changes throughout the day? What did you learn about the waggle dance that you didn't know before?

A queen, a worker, and a drone look different and live different lives. Yet each begins as a small egg in a wax cell. Where do their paths separate? Last time, we looked at how new generations develop. This week, we can separate two processes that are easily confused, becoming male or female, and becoming a queen or worker. In the usual honey bee pattern, an unfertilized egg develops into a male bee, a drone. A fertilized egg develops into a female bee. Both queens and workers are female. Fertilization alone does not determine which of those two forms a female will become. That distinction develops during larval life, when workers feed and care for the young. Very young female larvae have the potential to develop into queens. The feeding they receive during this early period helps direct their development. Larvae being raised as queens receive abundant royal jelly throughout their larval growth. Young worker larvae also receive royal jelly, so simply receiving some royal jelly does not make a bee a queen, the feeding pattern and its timing does. These different developmental pathways produce females with different bodies and capacities. A queen develops the reproductive system needed to become the colony’s principal egg layer. Workers develop the bodies and capacities that support brood care, comb building, food gathering, and the colony’s many other needs. An adult worker cannot later become a queen. The opportunity to follow that developmental path belongs to early life. This helps us understand another relationship within the colony. Producing a new queen depends on more than having a fertilized egg. Producing a new queen also depends on having suitably young brood and workers able to provide the necessary care. The next reproductive female develops through the planning and work of the existing colony. For this week, try explaining the distinction in your own words. Fertilization normally separates the male and female pathways, and early larval development separates the queen and worker pathways.