The Bedtime Scientist

Episode guide

Bees: The Journey Home

A honeybee visits a thousand flowers and still finds the one door of her hive. This episode follows the journey home and the warm hum inside.

The science, gently

  • Bees tell each other where the flowers are with a waggle dance, a map made of movement.
  • A summer hive can hold tens of thousands of sisters working in the dark, by touch and smell.
  • The hum you hear is thousands of wings beating together, keeping the hive warm.

Wonder together

  • How would you dance the directions to your home?
  • What does your family's hum sound like in the evening?
  • Where was the best flower you found today?

Tonight's calm-down

The hive settles at dusk: fewer wings, lower hum, everyone home. Hum one soft note with your lips closed and feel it in your chest. That is your hive sound. All bees in.