Even though it doesn’t have ears, the bee can hear. Without a nose, it perceives smells. It doesn’t speak, but it has a language — the language of vibrations. Much like a bat that flies in complete darkness using echolocation, the bee shares essential information with its sisters in the hive using vibrations. And it does this — in the dark.
In 1967, Professor Karl von Frisch confirmed what he had first suggested back in 1924: bees communicate through vibrations. A forager bee, upon returning from a source of nectar, pollen, water, or propolis, encodes the direction and distance into a “dance” — a sequence of body movements. This information is felt, not heard, by the other bees.
Bees don’t see the world as we do. Although they have five eyes, some colors are invisible to them. However, they do see ultraviolet and polarized light. Their dance doesn’t communicate color or shape — it transmits scent and direction. The rest, they sense with remarkable precision.
But there is another kind of vibration — one that’s not recognized. These unknown vibrations appear when parasites like Varroa mites attack a bee or when she is ill. She trembles in place, without forming the usual waggle dance pattern. The surrounding bees don’t respond. They don’t understand. This signal isn’t part of their “program”.
Professor Terzin’s book The Honey Bee, the Gospel of Nature, describes how bees produce both vertical and horizontal vibrations. In a recently recorded video, the same bee can be seen vibrating sideways, then diving between the frames and vibrating vertically. The entire exchange happens in total darkness. Bees are believed to feel these signals with their antennae through rapid contact.
There is reason to believe that bees use even more sophisticated cues than we realize. Possibly sound. Possibly scent. Perhaps even something closer to a sixth sense. But one thing is clear: the messages shared through vibration are powerful, precise, and vital to the life of the hive.
SOURCE: Mystery Revealed – How Bees Inform About the Location of the Source Pollen, Propolis and Water NO BEES, NO LIFE
