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Friday, May 27, 2011

Bees Doing the Washboard Dance

The bees gather a lot on the front of Lenox Pointe.  It's my only hive with out a slatted rack.  I somehow am short one for an eight frame hive.  I do have a modified one that I am currently using for the South GA Swarm hive and will retrieve it for Lenox Pointe when we move that hive to the farm.  We have slatted racks for all the hives there.

Meanwhile the bees in Lenox Pointe are often on the front of the hive, sent out to help with the heat inside the hive on a hot day.  When they are on the entry, the bees do the washboard dance.  Researchers haven't quite figured out what the bees are doing.  Evidence suggests that although they look like they are cleaning, they in fact are not.

Interestingly, as they are busy washboarding, other forager bees are trying to land.  You can see the landing foragers inserting themselves between the dancers and literally tripping over the dancers on the landing.

I made a video of them so you can see what they look like.


Since I said it makes me think of Bert doing the Pigeon in the video, below is a video of Bert, Doing the Pigeon on Sesame Street:



2 comments:

  1. Great video. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. What a delightful analogy. Now whenever I see my bees washboarding, I'll think of it as the pigeon dance and listen for the cooing.

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