Little worker bees are waggle dancing into the hearts of nature-loving Canberrans.
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Beekeeper Vikki Jones says a waggle dance - a bee's frantic shaking while walking in a figure eight - alerts other bees in the hive where she's found food or a new home site.
''It's quite exciting. She doesn't mind treading all over the other bees. She shakes her body to the left or right, depending which direction she wants them to go.
''There's no such thing as personal space. They will land on top of one another; they just work together.''
Infected with a fascination of bees from growing up on a farm, Mrs Jones said a worker's waggle dance revved up all its colleagues with good vibrations. ''They're saying, let's eat food, and they are off.''
In spring, when half a hive breaks from the rest and swarms in search of a hive, beekeepers are on the lookout. More than 30 swarm collectors are listed with the Beekeepers Association of the ACT. They invite people to call if there's a swarm in their yard.
Association spokesman John Grubb said the nucleus of a hive could be purchased for about $80.
He has left out bait hives - single boxes with comb which bees can smell. He has lured swarms to bolster his aparies.
''It is fantastic and they are so easy to handle,'' Mr Grubb said. ''They haven't got a home to defend, they have full bellies and they are not aggressive in any way.''
Mr Grubb said Canberra's numerous gardens held plenty of nectar and pollen - apart from winter. He said that on Anzac Day hives should be checked to see that enough honey was there for winter, and again in August.
Enthralled by the behaviour of bees, he said he could watch them for hours. In wet weather they went for a ''cleansing flight'' to go to the toilet outside, rather than soiling their hive.
Mrs Jones said her husband, Andrew, had given her a beehive for her birthday. It was the best present she had ever received.
''The way they work together, there's an absolutely overwhelming sense of community. Each bee has particular purpose, and moves from job to job without qualm, working for the greater good.''
Dick Johnston, a beekeeper for 25 years, whose introductory courses fill quickly at the Canberra Institute of Technology, accompanied a newcomer to bees, Bruno Ehrensperger, to Majura Park to collect a swarm from a bush.
Mr Ehrensperger's long-term goal is to sell excess honey at his chocolate truffle shop in Mawson.
He acquired two hives in autumn, fed them sugar syrup over winter and jumped at the opportunity when a groundskeeper had called a pest controller, who did not want to kill the bees at Majua Park. He called Mr Johnston.
''We thought they were engorged with honey. They are easily handled when they are engorged,'' Mr Ehrensperger said. The men cut a branch off the bush they were on and shook the swarm into a box.