11/27/2018 The Secrets of Honeycomb - PerfectBee

The Secrets of Honeycomb

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The Science of Bees

Why Bees Rock!

The Incredible Diversity of Bees

The Anatomy of Bees

Honey Bee Genetics

How Honey Bees Reproduce

The Honey Bee Life Cycle

Exploring the Process of Pollination

The Secrets of Honeycomb

How Bees Use Pheromones

Why Bees Can’t Fly?

The Common Races of Honey Bees

Section Test : 1.1 The Science of Bees

The Life of Bees

The Role of the Drone Bee

The Role of the Queen Bee

The Role of the Worker Bee

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Inside and Out of the Beehive

How Bees Sense and React to Their World

Why and How Bees Forage

How Do Bees Make Honey?

Sticking with Propolis

Understanding The Honey Flow

Fat Bees and the Winter Cluster

Why and How Bees Swarm

Section Test : 1.2 The Life of Bees

About Beekeeping
The Philosophy of Natural Beekeeping

Beekeeping with Kids

The Growth Urban Beekeeping

Understanding Bee Stings

Finding Beekeeping Clubs and Mentors

Beekeeping and The Neighbors

Top Beekeeping Books For Your Bookshelf

Responsible Beekeeping

Section Test : 1.3 About Beekeeping

One of the more aesthetically pleasing sights in nature is the structure constructed
by bees to form the basis of their home – honeycomb. We all know this iconic pattern
well. While it originates in nature, it is such a successful design that many
manufactured products mimic its shape.

We nd the hexagonal cells of honeycomb around us in many ways, but as

beekeepers we become intimately familiar with them through our beehives. Each
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individual cell has a story to tell, through the myriad ways in which it can be used by
bees.

The concise and orderly pattern of comb is a symbol for structure, order, utility and
strength – and with good reason. This pattern hasn’t occurred by accident. Bees have
discovered a way to build their home that serves them incredibly well.

Let’s look at the secrets and purposes of honeycomb in beehives.

The Making of Beeswax

Beeswax, the material used to make honeycomb, is a truly extraordinary material
with some fascinating properties. But how do bees produce the wax they need to
make cells?

Worker bees have 8 pairs of wax glands under their abdomen. These glands produce
small, at wax “scales” up to 3 mm long and 0.5 mm deep. When a worker creates

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comb, she scrapes a wax scale from her abdomen using the spines on her pollen
basket and passes them to her front legs.

Holding the scale in place, she then mixes it with saliva by chewing with her
mandibles. This adjusts the malleability of the wax, making it more suitable as a
building material from which each individual cell is built. Repeated tens of thousands
of time, these cells form the comb in a beehive. That comb is used for many essential
purposes by bees.

Nectar and Honey

Bees need a place in which to establish their home, both in nature and in our hives.
Their choice of wax-based, hexagonal cells is a simple approach but one that affords
them many bene ts. Before we look at why bees choose this approach, let’s rst
consider the purposes for which they use this comb.

The most obvious and well-known reason bees build comb is as a place to create and
store honey. We do, of course, take indirect advantage of that eventually around the
breakfast table. But while bees deliver that sweet treat to us, they obviously don’t do
it for our bene t!

Honey is an essential resource for the bee, particularly essential if they are to survive
the winter months. During the cold months, bees are unable to venture away from
the hive to gather nectar and pollen. They are, therefore, reliant on the honey
resources they have built up within the hive, as they form the “winter cluster”.

Comb Necessary To Survive The Cold Months

This depends on many factors, such as the temperatures in the depth of winter.
It is not unusual to require 60 lbs. or more of honey, which means a lot of comb
is necessary to store that honey.

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Bees use cells to create honey in two phases. First, nectar foraged from owers will
be placed in cells and left uncapped. This allows the water content of the nectar to
be reduced. Bees help this process along by fanning their wings over the open cells,
thus passing air over the nectar.

When the water content of the nectar has reached the right point, bees will cap the
honey. This means covering the cell with a thin layer of wax, ensuring the honey
stored in the cell will maintain the same water content. Capped honey is
recognizable by a white seal over each cell. At that point, the bees have produced
and stored honey.

The bees that collect nectar from owers do not directly deposit it into cells when
they return to the hive. Rather, a receiving bee will accept it and retire to an
appropriate part of the hive for “processing”, before placing in a cell.

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Bees pass on nectar to a receiving bee

When they return to the hive, foraging bees transfer nectar to  a receiving bees
for subsequent “processing” in the hive.

Pollen
While honey is an essential source of carbohydrates, bees need a balanced diet. For
proteins and fat, they collect and store pollen. As a beekeeper you will regularly see
bees returning to the hive with colored bundles of pollen, one of the more enjoyable
sights as you observe your bees. You will see cells in your hive that have colors
re ecting the type of owers visited.

Interestingly, while incoming bees pass nectar to other bees for processing, this is
not the case with pollen. Instead, a bee with pollen will move directly to a cell and
store it herself.

Bees do NOT pass on pollen to a receiving bee

Instead, they deposit it themselves directly in cells.

Here’s a great video illustrating just that.

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Honey Bee Storing Pollen In Comb

Brood
When we look at comb created by our bees, the regularity and consistency of the
pattern made by the cells is very evident. Most of the cells are the same shape and
size. However, as with most things associated with bees, all is not quite as simple.

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An essential bene t of honeycomb is supporting the raising of new bees

The cells used to create worker, drone and queens are different shapes and sizes.

The cells built for each caste differ, as follows:

Worker Cells: Most cells in the brood area are intended to raise worker (female)
bees, the smallest of the three castes.
Drone Cells: Drones are larger than worker bees and therefore their cells are
also larger. The cap on drone cells is more domed than that of worker cells,
which helps with identi cation of drone cells.
Queen Cells: These are often called “queen cups” and are a different shape and
size altogether, as compared to worker or drone cells. Queen cells look

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somewhat like a peanut hanging from the comb. Their presence may be cause
for alarm and signal some potentially negative scenarios, though this is not
always the case.

An important element of the beekeeper’s skill set is an awareness of where brood

cells would normally be created, their numbers and so on. Interpretation of the brood
area is an important part of any hive inspection.

Communication
There is another bene t to the use of comb that is rarely considered – as a
communication medium. Bees have a number of ways to communicate, using most
of their senses. Pheromones, for example, are an essential mechanism through
which bees determine the health and productivity of the queen. Other pheromones
are used as an alert to danger.

One of the less obvious ways to communicate, though, lay at the very feet of bees
within the hive. The cells on which the bees live – and walk – can conduct vibrations.
Studies have shown that bees can detect and respond to this across the hive.

Some beekeepers maintain that this is a reason to avoid the use of man-made
foundation, which may not have the same qualities as natural comb.

Why Hexagonal Cells?

There has often been debate about why bees create their honeycomb using the
familiar hexagonal shape for each cell. Some associate this with “bee intelligence”,
some to an eye for a beautiful pattern, some to evolutionary forces and so on.

There is likely a simple physics-based explanation and maybe a little math. Let’s take
a deeper look.

Whether by “intelligence” or otherwise, the creation of hexagonal cells has many

bene ts. Perhaps the most obvious one is that unlike, say, circles the hexagon is a

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shape that can be combined leaving no gaps. That said, other shapes like the square
and triangle share this property, so perhaps there are other reasons.

Beyond the obvious ef ciency of space, there is also a bene t in terms of “cell builder
ef ciency”. If a bee creates a cell of a random shape, the next cell can still adapt to its
shape. However, the second cell can’t be created until the rst cell is complete. The
consistent use of a hexagonal cell means that bees can rapidly and ef ciently build
cells, safe in the knowledge that the next cell will join it comfortably. That
consistency, across the entire hive, has a major impact on the speed with which bees
can build their comb.

However, there is another very important bene t to the use of a hexagonal cell.

Compared to the other shapes that leave no gaps (such as triangles and squares), the
hexagon creates comb with the least required volume of structural material i.e. wax.

This was the subject of considerable debate for many years. A mathematician at the
University of Michigan, Thomas Hales, eventually produced a mathematical proof
that the hexagon is the most ef cient approach, for a given volume of building
material.

So, we need the brightest minds to prove something bees seem to know intuitively!

This is important. As we have seen, the production of wax takes time, energy and the
collection of materials. These are valuable resources to bees and so the minimization
of the use of wax is essential. The hexagonal shape of the cell addresses that need.

How strong is honeycomb?

The hexagonal cell is very strong, in relation to the weight the wax used.
Honeycomb of just 100 grams can support weight of up to 4 kg, an amazing
ratio!

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While we can debate how and if bees “know” why a hexagonal cell is an excellent
choice, it is a fact that they have chosen an incredibly ef cient and beautiful way to
build their homes.

Why do honeybees love hexagons? - Zack Patters…

Decisions for the Beekeeper

Much of the life of the bee is objective, focused and effective. The issue of cell size is
an aspect of beekeeping that greatly enhances its enjoyment, while also having the
ability to infuriate.

Beekeepers who install man-made foundation (even that covered with beeswax, which
is quite common) can choose the cell size of that foundation. This is a topic of much
debate between beekeepers and can keep beekeepers arguing all day!

The topic of whether to use man-made foundation – the substrate on which bees to
create their comb – is an open, ongoing debate. Many beekeepers with a bent
towards a more natural form of beekeeping prefer to simply provide a rectangular
frame, on which bees can create their own foundation, made entirely of beeswax
forming a surface of entirely natural comb. This approach is referred to

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as foundation-less beekeeping and is a key tenet of the broader philosophy of natural

beekeeping.

Also common is the use of man-made foundation. Typically, this is a plastic frame,
often covered with wax. The foundation is imprinted with a basic structure of cells
and bees will build their own cells on top of this. The idea here is that bees have a
signi cant head start, in that they do not need to expand time and energy building a
solid foundation. This allows them to instead focus on the cells covering the
foundation.

Proponents of foundation-less beekeeping argue that the decision about cell size is
made for the bees when a man-made foundation (with a cell structure imprinted) is
provided – and that is far from natural for the colony.

The use of foundation is more common than foundation-less frames. But the debate
continues.

Mark Complete

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