How honeybees share directions
When a honeybee finds a good source of food, it returns to the hive and performs a “waggle dance” on the vertical surface of the honeycomb. The angle of the dance tells other bees which direction to fly, measured against the position of the sun, while the length of the waggling part shows how far away the food is.
Scientists long assumed that bees were born knowing the dance perfectly. However, recent experiments found that young bees which had never watched older bees dance made more mistakes in both direction and distance. Their accuracy improved with practice, but it never fully matched that of bees that had learned by watching others.
The dance is not the only way bees communicate. Returning foragers also carry the scent of the flowers they have visited, and other bees use this smell to recognise the source when they arrive. Some beekeepers use this knowledge to guide colonies towards crops that need pollinating.