Communication in Honeybee
Communication is important for honey bees (Apis spp.), fascinating social insects known for
their remarkable ability to communicate effectively within their colonies. These creatures have
developed some very sophisticated forms of communication that are also elegant in their
simplicity. This communication is vital for the survival and organization of their hive, as it
allows them to coordinate tasks like foraging, defense, and care of the brood.
Honey bees have two primary methods of talking to one another: movement and odor. Bees
use these behaviors, such as the famous “waggle” dance, to send messages throughout the
colony, locate a nearby food source, and communicate other information.
1. Pheromones or Chemical Communication
Pheromones are chemical signals secreted by glands in different parts of the bee's body
that can trigger a variety of different things to happen within a colony. They may be
broadcast into the air as odors, or they may be passed between individuals through food-
sharing or the touch of an antenna. Some of these chemical messages also serve as
biological feedback mechanisms that help to initiate, inhibit, or regulate complex
behaviors in individual bees or the colony as a whole.
• Alarm pheromone is released when a bee feels threatened. Detecting this
pheromone quickly alerts other bees that danger has been reported, and can
quickly make an entire colony highly defensive. Bees release alarm pheromones
when they bite or sting an intruder, effectively tagging the unwelcome stranger
as trouble. This helps other hive members recognize and fend off a foreign bee
that may be hoping to rob a hive of its honey Beekeepers routinely use smoke
to temporarily cover up this odor, and keep more bees from recognizing that
others have become upset or alarmed.
• Queen pheromone or QMO (Queen Mandibular Pheromone) is very
important to the stability of the colony. This pheromone is a complex mixture
of numerous compounds which gives each queen a unique identifying scent,
which she imparts to every member of her colony. The main functions of the
QMP are:
➢ Its presence suppresses egg-laying in workers.
➢ It attracts drones while the queen is on her mating flight.
➢ It regulates the behavior of the worker bees.
➢ It maintains the social structure of the colony.
• Nasonov Pheromone produced by the Nasonov gland is present at the end of
worker bees' abdomen. Worker bees release the Nasonov pheromone to orient
returning forager bees back to the colony by raising their abdomens and fanning
their wings vigorously. The same pheromone is used to keep a bee swarm
together as they exit their hive and settle nearby. It also keeps the swarm
cohesive while it is in this resting state.
• Brood Pheromones produced by bee larva, which will change gradually as the
larva develops. This scent attracts nurse bees to the cell, and indicates to them
what kind of food they need, and how much to provide, depending on the age
of the larva and whether it is to become a drone, a worker, or a new queen.
Brood pheromones also prompt the nurse bees to cap a larva’s cell before
pupation.
2. Dance Language
When a honey bee has a successful foraging trip, it will return to the hive with valuable
information about food sources, a safe drinking hole, or other knowledge about the
surrounding area. The worker bees dance to communicate this information. When a
worker bee dances for its fellow workers, it uses certain movements and angles of its
body in a specific pattern to tell the others where it found nectar- and pollen-rich
flowers. There are two main food dances:
Round Dance
If food is near the hive (less than 90 meters from the hive), a scout bee of the species
Apis mellifera performs the round dance. In a round dance, the forager or scout bees
turn in circles first to the right and then to the left. Round dance intimates to the
recruited workers of the hive that the source of food is less than 90 meters from the hive
but does not indicate direction. Round dance facilitates fellow workers to search for
the correct food source by comparing the two smells (i.e., the sample of smell provided
by the forager bees and the smell of the target flower).
Waggle Dance
When the food source is located farther than 90 meters away, the scout/forager bees
perform the waggle dance (or tail waggling dance) which is an eight-figure pattern.
Waggle dance indicates both the direction and distance of the food source.
Karl von Frisch was a German scientist who studied the "language" of bees and in 1973
won the Nobel Prize for explaining the waggle dance.
The intensity of the abdomen shake represents how good the food source is and the size
of the figure-eight represents how far away the food source is. Finally, the direction that
the forager is dancing corresponds to the direction of the food source outside of the
hive. The bees use the top of the hive to represent the sun, so if the dance is done facing
30 degrees left of the top of the hive, the foragers know to fly in the direction 30 degrees
left of the sun.
Since multiple bees arrive and relay their discoveries, the hive then “votes” on the most
viable site through the most number of bees joining the waggle dance and how intense
it gets.
3. Trophallaxis
Trophallaxis is an important form of colony communication. It is the direct transfer of
food and fluids from one individual to another.
4. Touch
The easiest form of honey bee communication is through touch. Bees touch each other’s
antennae to identify their fellow bee and communicate during waggle dance. When a
bee uses its antennae to touch an object, it may stick out its tongue to taste it.
Meanwhile, they use their feet to measure the size of comb cells, which is important in
creating a flawless-looking honeycomb grid. This mode of communication is also why
bees are particular about keeping their antennae clean. Bees are also covered in tiny
hairs filled with nerve endings sensitive to vibration frequencies, which they use when
detecting danger. They can also tell they are being touched because of these hairs.
5. Vibration and Sound
Solitary bees, those that don’t live in a hive, have other means of communication. Since
they don’t need to communicate with other bees like what happens in a colony, they use
vibrations and sounds instead. They use these methods to scare off predators or signal
potential mates.
Other forms of communication include the following:
• Female bees create buzzing vibrations to lead males into their underground tunnels.
• Male bees create a faint buzz during mating season, increasing females’ receptivity.
• Bees create a collective buzz to inhibit others from moving in case of danger.
• They buzz loudly when predators or people come too close to their nest.
