The duration of the waggle run communicates the distance of the flower patch to the dance followers. One second of waggling corresponds to 1km, approximately. The direction of the flowers is given by the angle of the dancing bee’s body. Dancing takes place on the vertical honeycomb. If the bee dances with her body pointing vertically up the comb, this means that the flowers are in the direction of the sun. Vertically down means in the opposite direction to the sun, 75 degrees to the right of vertical means 75 degrees to the right of the sun, and so on. Because the sun’s position moves, a bee will adjust the angle of her body if she dances for the same flower patch at different times of day.
In the morning, for example, the sun is in the east. A bee dancing for a patch of
flowers to the south would make a waggle run to the right of vertical as the
flowers are to the right of the sun. In the afternoon the sun would be in the
west and the same bee would now make a waggle run to the left of vertical.