Update on Honey Bee Democracy

I learnt alot about how the honeybee decision making process from the HoneyBee Democracy by Thomas Seeley. They are nature's secret to the best politicians. When ten thousand bees want a new home, they form a house hunting "Senate" who are made up of older, experienced bees called Scout Bees. The Scout Bees come back and do a convincing dance to present the new home to the rest of the colony. The queen is not in charge of this decision making, no veto power for her at all. The decision is made collectively, bottom up and its done by voting. When the majority of the Scout Bees dance about the same new home , that is when the Scout Bees will wait for the 1st sunny day after the decided vote and then begin to rev up the engines of all the bees to lead them to their new home. They literally sound like an accelarating car engine when they roar out of the hive to swarm. I enjoyed reading the book but it was even better listening to Thomas Seeley talking about his research. Click the link to listen to the excellent animated radio podcast: HONEY BEE DEMOCRACY then if you are still interested watch the video below on how his research team translated the Bee Waggle Dance to communicate where the new home, the sweetest flower, a water source and more, in terms of distance, sun declination, smell and taste of the nectar and flight angle when leaving the hive.