> Today I witnessed a behavior in my honey bees which I had never seen before. > The weather at noon was sunny, approx 70 degrees. The hive was in full sun. > The bees were coming back to the hive heavy with pollen. > > The unusual behavior I observed involved bees departing to the field for > more nectar/pollen. As I was watching the hive, a departing bee would > appear at the entrance, immediately flip over on her back, wiggle her legs > fiercely for about one second, then flip back over on to her feet and take > off for the field. I estimate 10% of the departing bees performed this > "flip", and continued to behave in this way for at least the 20 minutes I > watched. > > Could this behavior be a form of communication? I think that what the bee is trying to communicate is that the landing board is wet. The passage through the hive entrance seems to involve a certain amount of twisting and turning. You hardly notice it, unless the surface is wet, a wing touches the board and the bee gets stuck for a bit. Kevin D. Parsons