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Author Topic: I finally have pollen coming in  (Read 3703 times)

Offline Cass Cohenour

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I finally have pollen coming in
« on: March 02, 2008, 07:10:53 pm »
I saw a bee doing a waggle dance today and seen that it had pollen on its hind legs. Yesterday was the first time in two weeks that was nice enough for my bees to be really active. I took a couple pictures and you can read more about it here;

http://wvbeekeeper.blogspot.com/2008/03/waggle-dance.html

Offline Brian D. Bray

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Re: I finally have pollen coming in
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2008, 01:18:58 am »
Waggle Dance:  Regardless of which side of the frame a bee is on the top of the frame is always north.  Each shake of the abdomen equates to a distance of approx 100 yards.  The more shakes the further away the source.  The faster the shakes and dance is repeated the more abundant the source.  The Waggle Dance is performed for both Nectar and Pollen.
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Offline Cass Cohenour

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Re: I finally have pollen coming in
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2008, 02:46:05 am »
You can read a few different articles on the waggle dance and come up with a few different suggestions as to what part of the dance does what as far as the directions.

"The looping waggle dance has two components:
Straight run - The orientation of this conveys information about the direction of the food.
The speed at which the figure-eight part of the dance is repeated which indicates how far away the food is."

"Research shows that the duration of buzzing during the straight run may be a better indicator of distance. The longer the bee buzzes, the farther away the food source."

"The direction and duration of waggle runs are closely correlated with the direction and distance of the patch of flowers being advertised by the dancing bee. Flowers located directly in line with the sun are represented by waggle runs in an upward direction on the vertical combs, and any angle to the right or left of the sun is coded by a corresponding angle to the right or left of the upward direction. The distance between hive and recruitment target is encoded in the duration of the waggle runs. The farther the target, the longer the waggle phase, with a rate of increase of about 75 milliseconds per 100 meters."

"If food lies in the same direction as the sun, the foraging bee dances straight up. If it lies in the opposite direction of the sun, the bee dances straight down. If it is to the left, the bee dances at the appropriate angle to the left."  This is in contrast that to your statement about the top of the frame being north. It seems that the scientists who have studied the dance have determined that bees use the sun for direction rather than a compass. The top of the frame might be north in the southern hemisphere.
 
There is some good info about it on PBS's website, and a video.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/dancesroun.html

After taking another look at the link it is more of a tutorial to learn how to read a waggle dance. You can test yourself by clicking on the heading, "You be the bee." Or click the link below. This is pretty cool.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/dancesbees1.html



 

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