# waggle dance Swinging or Rotating observation hive AFFECT on orientation



## pawn57 (Mar 22, 2016)

I read the waggle dance is to communicate the direction and distance to food. So my question is...

If you swing an observation hive or rotate it, changing its orientation to the earth and sun (north south east west), would that cause bees doing waggle dance to send the other bees in the wrong direction to the food source?

Also wondering if it will affect the bees sense of direction? Say if you rotated the hive 180 degrees, and a bee in the center of hive knows the exit is to the east (now it's really to the west), would the bee possibly go to the wrong side of the hive to exit (find the "exit" not there) then have to find it again and discover that the exit is now on the other side of the hive?


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## Scpossum (May 4, 2014)

Oh Snap! What a great question! I might be sending mine to the highway instead of the riverbottom!


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## Riverderwent (May 23, 2013)

pawn57 said:


> I read the waggle dance is to communicate the direction and distance to food. So my question is...
> 
> If you swing an observation hive or rotate it, changing its orientation to the earth and sun (north south east west), would that cause bees doing waggle dance to send the other bees in the wrong direction to the food source?


No. The dance describes the flight path in relation to the sun at that time. It is not based on the orientation of the hive entrance. The confused bees will be the dancers, not their audience.



> Also wondering if it will affect the bees sense of direction? Say if you rotated the hive 180 degrees, and a bee in the center of hive knows the exit is to the east (now it's really to the west), would the bee possibly go to the wrong side of the hive to exit (find the "exit" not there) then have to find it again and discover that the exit is now on the other side of the hive?


The bees will locate the entrance by the light and landmark smells inside the hive. When they leave the hive, they will key off the direction of the sun. Unless they reorient, they may have trouble locating the entrance when they return.


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## pawn57 (Mar 22, 2016)

Riverderwent. Thank you for the answer and thorough explanation. I appreciate it.


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## IAmTheWaterbug (Jun 4, 2014)

Riverderwent said:


> No. The dance describes the flight path in relation to the sun at that time. It is not based on the orientation of the hive entrance. The confused bees will be the dancers, not their audience.


Yes; according to Sealy (and others) the direction of the waggle dance relative to vertical tells the bees which direction to fly relative to the sun. So yawing the OH frames shouldn't affect the information the bees receive. 

But changing the pitch might, if the dancers no longer have a true vertical reference.


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