Straight to the point

Posted by Henry on February 05, 2004

In Reply to: Straight to the point posted by Shae on February 03, 2004

: : : I have always heard that when someone is in a hurry, you B line it to that point. Where does that come from?

: : Bees apparently return to the hive in a straight line, navigating by the sun. Thus they travel in a bee line!
: : If the bee does not know where to find food, she will take a somewhat irregular path away from the hive until she finds a suitable food source which may be up to 10 km distant.[1] She will then fly a straight line path back to the hive and make a peculiar ``dance'' on the vertical combs in the hive.

: : From the archives; "There is no disagreement among scientists that returning foragers dance in the hive. Everyone also agrees that once a forager locates a good food source, she will be able to fly directly to and from that flower patch. That is, she flies a straight line (a bee-line) to the food patch from the hive using local landmarks and the sun for orientation."
[Dead link removed - ed] Accessed July 28, 2003. Bee Research Digest, ABJ - October, 1992 - Pages 641-644, by Edward E. Southwick, Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York.

: The returning forager 'dances' to the other bees in the hive. Her movements give them exact directions to the new food source and THEY make a bee-line to it.

The Bee Line Expressway runs due east out of Orlando. The other creature famed for flying in a straight line is the crow - "ten miles as the crow flies."