In spite of the fact that we understand that bees do not hear sounds as we do, with our ears, we humans prefer to think of the bees as making sounds rather than vibrations, or oscillations.  We may even talk about the buzz of the bees in flight as somehow communicating with us:  Busy bee, buzz all you like, but don’t sting me! 

Beekeepers can in fact learn from the audible hum of a hive quite a lot about the colony within. For example, in his useful little book At the Hive Entrance, Professor Storch begins by suggesting the beekeeper should listen to the hive in winter when it would be inadvisable to open it up: On a quiet day, listen at the entrance of a well-populated hive which has no intermediate bottom board. Most people will not hear anything at all; but a well-trained ear will distinguish a soft buzz, similar to a lightly-uttered 'shh'. If one listens at the hive entrance on a day when the temperature has sharply increased or decreased, one can hear a buzz resembling an evening breeze in a forest.

And I am sure that every beekeeper is well tuned to hear the change in the