Honey bees can’t talk, but they can tell their sisters where the flowers are, by dancing. Read along, then try a wiggle dance of your own.
In a meadow of purple and yellow flowers, a honey bee called Hettie buzzed from bloom to bloom. She sipped sweet nectar and packed pollen on her back legs. “So many flowers!” hummed Hettie. “My sisters must find these too.” Hettie was a worker bee, and every worker in her hive was a girl. They were all sisters, with one mother: the queen.
So Hettie flew home, all the way back to the hive. Inside, it was warm and dark and cosy. Her sisters were busy on the golden honeycomb. Hettie couldn’t draw a map. So she did something wonderful instead. She danced!
Hettie ran straight ahead across the honeycomb, wiggling her body. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle! Then she looped back round to the start and did it again. Round and wiggle, round and wiggle, like drawing a figure eight. This special dance is called the waggle dance.
Her sisters crowded close around her in the dark. They felt her wiggles with their feelers, and Hettie bumped them gently as she wiggled past. They sniffed the flower smell on her fuzzy body. Hettie even gave them little tastes of the nectar she had collected. Mmm, flowers!
Hettie’s dance was a map with no paper. The way her wiggly run pointed showed which way to fly, with the sun as a guide. Her wiggly run went straight up the honeycomb. That meant, “Fly towards the sun!” And it was a long wiggly run. That meant, “The flowers are far away.” A short wiggly run would mean, “They’re near.”
Then lots of her sisters zipped out of the hive. They flew towards the sun, on and on, sniffing for that flower smell. And there it was: the meadow of purple and yellow flowers! Hettie’s dance had shown them the way.
Not far away, in a sunny back garden, Leila sat on the bench with Grandpa Yusuf. They watched the bees zoom in and out of the white hive, from a safe distance. “How do the bees know where the flowers are?” asked Leila. “One bee finds them,” said Grandpa. “Then she dances the way for her sisters.” Leila’s eyes went wide. “A dancing map!”
Later, in the bright kitchen, Sami tugged Leila’s dress. “Bickit?” he asked. The blue biscuit tin sat on the high shelf, right by the sunny window. Sami didn’t know where it was. Leila grinned. “I’ll dance you a map, just like a bee!”
Leila made up her very own dance. She wiggled towards the bright window. “That means towards the sun!” Then she did a short wiggle. “That means it’s near!” Sami wiggled after her, giggling, all the way to the window. Grandpa Yusuf lifted the tin down from the high shelf. “Wiggle, wiggle, crunch!” laughed Sami. Now it’s your turn. What will you dance a map to?
the end
What this story helps with: Honey bees do a waggle dance inside the hive to show their sisters which way to fly, and how far, to find flowers.
This story shows that animals can share information without words. A honey bee who finds good flowers does a waggle dance on the honeycomb: the direction of her wiggly run tells her sisters which way to fly, using the sun as a guide, and a longer run means the flowers are farther away. Her sisters also pick up the smell of the flowers and tastes of nectar. Leila’s kitchen dance is her own pretend game, inspired by the bees. To keep the conversation going, watch bees on flowers together from a calm distance, and wonder aloud where they might be going next.
Written and illustrated by the wishyou.today team. Every story is checked for age, kindness, safety and facts before it is published. Spotted something? Tell us on Instagram.
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