For many years, one of the deepest mysteries of the hive has been taking place right there in plain view, on the front of it. Most beekeepers have witnessed at one time or another that peculiar activity that has been given the name "washboarding". On a late summer's afternoon hundreds of honey bees can be seen pacing to and fro, heads pointed downward. They take a few steps forward and a few steps back, tapping the wooden hive front with their antennae, for hours. Many a beekeeper has wondered aloud, what on earth are they doing there? The various explanations offered have never really quite matched up with what we see there. It is, how shall I say? -- just plain puzzling. Busy as a bee, so they say, but busy doing what? It almost looks like some sort of idol worship! Are they paying homage to the queen? 

Imagine my surprise when I uncovered what may really be the explanation for this weird to and fro rocking at the threshold of the hive. I had my head stuck in a book, late one night, when the answer leapt at me from the page. The book I was reading was called "Pheromones and Animal Behaviour" and the author was explaining how honey bees share many habits with paper wasps. The paper wasp nest is the one that appears in scenes where Pooh Bear is contemplating a "hive". Evidently wasps imbue the paper material of the nest with secretions from their abdomens which give each nest its own characteristic odor. Naturally, the papery material easily absorbs odors. 

Watching the honeybees performing their ritual, it occurred to me that very likely this is what they are doing. The skittery movement of their little feet resembles nothing so much as the spreading of some sort of invisible paint all over the front over the wooden hive front, all the while checking it with their odor sensitive antennae. If they painstakingly applied an odorous substance, soon the whole front would be an odorous beacon which said in its own way to weary foragers returning from the fields, home sweet home.

Excerpt from "The Mystery of the Hive" PL Borst, Amercian Bee Journal 2010

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