Growers and Grocers

There are mysteries in nature that are simply awe-inspiring: Penguin fathers braving the Antarctic superfreeze to incubate their eggs. Two-hundred-ton blue whales subsisting on microscopic krill (about 10,000 pounds a day). Bioluminescent jellyfish, fungi, insects, fairies. (Just kidding about that last one, folks.)

And then there’s that thing that bees do. Actually, bees do many, many things that are incredible. The whole colony-of-insects-working-as-a-perfectly-ordered-system thing is pretty mind-blowing. But one especially intriguing thing that bees do is the “waggle dance.”

When a honey bee worker out scouting for food finds a good source of pollen, she rushes back to her hive and performs the waggle dance. The waggle dance is an elaborate series of movements that the bee uses to communicate the directions and even the distance to the food source the worker has discovered. The better the source, apparently, the more lively the dance.

And as unbelievable as it sounds, the waggle dance is pretty darn specific. Bees, apparently, rarely lose their way. Or, that’s how it used to be, at least. But now, with colonies collapsing at an alarming rate and bees dropping like, well, like flies, everything is up in the air. Scientists are rushing to study and hopefully reverse the current crisis that has led to an alarming rate of bee disappearance and as-yet-unexplained colony disruption and death.

The good news is, big corporations like Haagen-Dazs are taking the initiative to help support research into the colony collapse disorder (CCD). (According to Help the Honey Bees, sponsored by Haagen-Dazs, 40% of the company’s super-premium flavors are bee dependent.) 

It’s not just Haagen-Dazs that has a vested interest. Maybe you don’t care for honey, and bees have always made you a little nervous anyway. If you think this whole CCD has nothing to do with you, you better take a look at this list. Drink coffee or tea? Wear jeans or T-shirts? Like mustard or ketchup on your hotdog? Cotton, coffee, tea, mustard, and tomatoes are all included in the 80 percent of U.S. crops that are pollinated by honey bees. Some, like apples, almonds, carrots, and cantaloupes, are almost exclusively reliant on honey bees for pollination. So, to sum it up, roughly one out of every three bites we eat in the United States was pollinated at some stage by honey bees. Relevant, isn’t it?

For a fun, albeit gender-inaccurate (no boy worker bees in real life!) representation of the waggle dance, check out this video.

Then, for a slightly more serious demonstration of the amazing waggle dance (no knee pads! no males!), check out this video. (Warning: The narrator mistakenly refers to the forager as a “he.” I don’t know where this male-bee bias is coming from! In any case, foragers/workers are definitely females. The males are drones, and they stay put in the hive. They have no stingers, they do no work, and their sole task in life is servicing the queen. Nice.)

Hungry for more? Check out this NOVA’s “Dances with Bees” and see if you can interpret the bees’ directions yourself!

Picture by me.