Round dance (honey bee)
A round dance is a way honey bees tell their nestmates about a food source. When a forager finds good nectar or other food close to the hive, it returns to the hive and moves in tight circles on the comb, alternating directions as it goes.
Scientists used to think there were two dances: a round dance for near food and a waggle dance for far food. Now it’s understood that bees use one dance language that always includes information about distance and direction, but how clearly the signal is shown depends on how far away the food is. So the old idea of a separate “round dance” is outdated.
Direction is communicated using the angle of the dance and the position of the sun. Bees use the sun’s position and blue-sky polarization patterns to figure direction, and they can track the sun’s movement throughout the day even when it’s partly hidden.
The dance also carries information about how profitable the food source is. The dancer’s liveliness, including the rate of reversals, the number of reversals, and how long the dance lasts, helps nestmates judge value. A higher rate of reversals generally means a better source. The sound of the dance—its frequency, pulse rate, and duration—also relates to how valuable the nectar is. Costs like distance and nectar flow can lower how profitable the source seems.
A bee will only dance if the food source is worth the energy to advertise it. Follower bees listen to many dances and don’t just chase the richest signal; responding to a range of options helps the colony find good food more reliably.
The behavior was studied by Karl von Frisch, a Nobel laureate who helped explain how honey bees communicate with their dances. He showed that both the round and waggle dances are part of how bees share information about food.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:29 (CET).