Decode the Honey bee Waggle Dance Workshop

Workshop Date: Sunday 6th October 2019

 

Honey bees have sophisticated communication systems which they use to coordinate colony activities. The best known is the “waggle dance”. Foragers who have located profitable flower patches make waggle dances back in the hive. These communicate the direction and distance of the flower patch to nestmate bees who follow the dance. In 1973 Karl von Frisch received a Nobel Prize for discovering the waggle dance. The waggle dance is one of the few scientific discoveries awarded a Nobel Prize that can be seen with the naked eye. The honey bee is the only animal that “tells you where it has been”. This can be used in many ways by scientists. It can be used, for example, to investigate how flying insects measure distance. It can also be used to learn where honey bees are collecting food, and to study their foraging patterns and they vary with time.

The workshop is targeted at anyone interested in science, as well as people with particular interests in honey bees, plants, and conservation.

The workshop will be taught by Professor Francis Ratnieks, Dr. Karin Alton and other bee researchers from the Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects (LASI) at the University of Sussex. LASI is using dance decoding to understand honey bee foraging as part of the Sussex Plan for Honey Bee Health & Well Being.

 

Other information

Dates
The workshop will be taught on Sunday 6th October between 11.30am and 15pm, please aim to arrive by 11.15 to allow for parking and refreshments prior to the first lecture at 11.30.

Venue
The Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton

Cost
A donation of £20 is requested towards the research we carry out at LASI, and is payable at the time of booking. Spaces are limited to 25 people and will be allocated on a first come basis.

Equipment
Notebook and pen. WE will not be opening bee hives so a veil is not needed.

Travel
Sussex University is easily reached by road and rail. Falmer station is 10 minutes walk. Parking is available in visitor car parks for a small fee.

Maps
Campus maps

Location of LASIHow to get to LASI

 

Website
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lasi

Book your space on this workshop here:

Decode the Honey bee Waggle Dance Workshop

 

We look forward to welcoming you to the lab.