Whatto! Peeps....
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| Bobbi loved Bees.......a little too much... |
The more I read about Honey Bees.....the more I LOVE THEM!
Today I found out that Honey Bees know the following two things:
1. The world is round
2. How to calculate angles!.....
Yes!
Scientists have figured out how to interpret a 'Honey Bee’s dance' where they communicate where to find food, a new home, and other useful things.
Using this information, an experiment was done called the “Schafberg Experiment”, (named after the mountain in Austria where it was performed).
The only source of food for a colony was placed on the far side of the mountain. The bees could not fly over the mountain. However, when they communicated where the food was to be found, they conveyed perfectly the angle exactly across the mountain, from themselves to the food source, even though it was an angle they had never flown!
.....So this suggests they had to figure out in their head!
This amazing ability to take into account the roundness of the earth is found in their typical food finding dances.
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| When he wants to look busy, Alphonso wears his open-crotch Beesuit |
When Honey Bees dance to communicate where a good food source is, they will dance on the surface of the comb. The dance consists of the bee turning in circles, on each revolution the bee will bisect the circle at an angle; the angle with respect to the 12 o’clock represents the angle to fly with respect to the sun. For instance, if the bee ran from 6 to 12 o’clock, this would mean fly straight forward towards the sun; 7 to 1 o’clock would mean fly just to the right of the sun; 12 to 6 o’clock, fly directly away from the sun.
But it gets even better; these little dances can take a really long time and might even take all night to communicate..... and meanwhile, the angle of the sun has changed!
So while doing the dance, the bee actually calculates the change in angle based on where the sun is right now with respect to the hive!.
So if it’s at night when they are doing the dance, they calibrate the angles to associate with where the sun is right now on the other side of the world!
That's Bally GENIUS!
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| Police said the two honey thieves were easy to spot |
Likewise, when the bees are following the instructions and flying towards the food, they calibrate what they learned based on where the sun is right now against when the instructions were given. So basically, bee’s are tiny little maths experts with amazing time keeping abilities and able to calculate distances without any discernible measuring device…or SatNav...
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| The honey beer went straight to her head |
Now in addition to knowing angles, they also need to know how far they need to go in each direction. To accomplish this, they wiggle their abdomen’s while crossing the circle. The more wiggles, the greater the distance; and like with the angles, this is no vague notion of distance. The bees take and communicate relatively precise measurements on how far they need to go.
If the distance to the food source is under about 80 meters, it has been found that the bees will not do the wiggle part of the dance, but will just give the direction to the best spot to go.
Amazing!
Makes me want to go outside, cover myself in Honey and shout....
..."Let the Bee Disco Begin!"
Tallyho!
Bees Wishes - Lord Noel
