WHY BEES DANCE
I’ve been captivated by bees since I was a child
the day I discovered them in a field of sunflowers by chance.
What has fascinated me is not the way they buzz from flower to flower…
it is the way they dance.
As they moved from flower to flower…never stopping long…constantly advancing…
I would notice every now and then…how some of the honeybees were dancing.
I asked the bees about their dancing…but they were too busy to answer
always moving on ahead…
So one day I decided to ask the sunflower instead.
“Hey sunflower”, I asked…the sunflower gave me a furtive glance…
“Can you please tell me…if you know…why to honeybees dance”.
The sunflower thought for a moment…then whispered…soft and low
"It’s a secret…something only honeybees and all the sunflowers know”.
“But since you are the first person who ever asked me…although it is taboo
I think you’ve earned the right for me to share our secret with you.”
“All sunflowers have the ability to sing,” she said, “in voices loud and clear,
but sunflowers sing in a key only honeybees can hear.”
“It’s what attracts them to us in the first place…they don’t discover us by chance…
and our songs are so beautiful…it makes the honeybees dance.”
“The honeybees remember the dance produced by our sunflower song…
then share it to the other bees in the hive…so they can find us and dance along.”
For years, to no avail, I’ve tried to hear the sunflowers sing…
bending over or down on my hands and knees…
perhaps that’s why I’ve always been a little jealous of sunflowers and honeybees.
Of course as I’ve grown up I’ve found a different answer from apiologists
and in books as to how and why there are dancing honeybees…
but I prefer the answer
as a child…
one sunflower shared with me.
Copyright © Jim Yerman | Year Posted 2025
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