Menu
Home Explore People Places Arts History Plants & Animals Science Life & Culture Technology
On this page
Honeycomb
Mass of hexagonal wax cells built by honey bees in their nests

A honeycomb is a structure of hexagonal prismatic cells made from beeswax by honey bees in their nests to store honey, pollen, and protect their brood, including eggs, larvae, and pupae. Beekeepers harvest honey by removing or extracting it with a honey extractor, often returning wax to boost honey production. Worn wax can be repurposed into wax foundation sheets to guide bees in building smaller worker cells, discouraging larger drone cells. Comb honey—harvested intact—is a popular edible form. Over time, broodcomb darkens due to debris and bee activity, while honeycomb in the supers remains lighter. Some wasps build similar hexagonal combs from paper, but these are rarely called honeycombs.

We don't have any images related to Honeycomb yet.
We don't have any YouTube videos related to Honeycomb yet.
We don't have any PDF documents related to Honeycomb yet.
We don't have any Books related to Honeycomb yet.
We don't have any archived web articles related to Honeycomb yet.

Geometry

Further information: Patterns in nature

The axes of honeycomb cells are always nearly horizontal, with the open end higher than the back end. The open end of a cell is typically referred to as the top of the cell, while the opposite end is called the bottom. The cells slope slightly upwards, between 9 and 14°, towards the open ends.

Two possible explanations exist as to why honeycomb is composed of hexagons rather than any other shape. First, the hexagonal tiling creates a partition with equal-sized cells, while minimizing the total perimeter of the cells. Known in geometry as the honeycomb theorem, this was conjectured by Jan Brożek and mathematically proven much later by Thomas Hales. Thus, a hexagonal structure uses the least material to create a lattice of cells within a given volume. A second reason, given by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, is that the shape simply results from the process of individual bees putting cells together: somewhat analogous to the boundary shapes created in a field of soap bubbles. In support of this, he notes that queen cells, which are constructed singly, are irregular and lumpy with no apparent attempt at efficiency.3

The closed ends of the honeycomb cells are also an example of geometric efficiency, though three-dimensional.4 The ends are trihedral (i.e., composed of three planes) sections of rhombic dodecahedra, with the dihedral angles of all adjacent surfaces measuring 120°, the angle that minimizes surface area for a given volume. (The angle formed by the edges at the pyramidal apex, known as the tetrahedral angle, is approximately 109° 28' 16" (= arccos(−1/3))

The shape of the cells is such that two opposing honeycomb layers nest into each other, with each facet of the closed ends being shared by opposing cells.5

Individual cells do not show this geometric perfection: in a regular comb, deviations of a few percent from the "perfect" hexagonal shape occur.6 In transition zones between the larger cells of drone comb and the smaller cells of worker comb, or when the bees encounter obstacles, the shapes are often distorted. Cells are also angled up about 13° from horizontal to prevent honey from dripping out.7

In 1965, László Fejes Tóth discovered that the trihedral pyramidal shape (which is composed of three rhombi) used by the honeybee is not the theoretically optimal three-dimensional geometry. A cell end composed of two hexagons and two smaller rhombi would actually be .035% (or about one part per 2850) more efficient. This difference is too minute to measure on an actual honeycomb, and irrelevant to the hive economy in terms of efficient use of wax, considering wild comb varies considerably from any mathematical notion of "ideal" geometry.89

Role of wax temperature

Bees use their antennae, mandibles and legs to manipulate the wax during comb construction, while actively warming the wax.10 During the construction of hexagonal cells, wax temperature is between 33.6–37.6 °C (92.5–99.7 °F), well below the 40 °C (104 °F) temperature at which wax is assumed to be liquid for initiating new comb construction.11 The body temperature of bees is a factor for regulating an ideal wax temperature for building the comb.12

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Honeycombs. Look up honeycomb in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. Graham, Joe. The Hive and the Honey Bee. Hamilton/IL: Dadant & Sons; 1992; ISBN. ↩

  2. "Glossary of Bee Terms". Montgomery County Beekeepers Association. Retrieved 2018-02-08. dark discoloration on the surface of comb honey left on the hive for some time, caused by bees tracking propolis over the surface. https://montgomerycountybeekeepers.com/glossary-bee-terms/#t ↩

  3. Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth (1942). On Growth and Form. Dover Publications. ISBN. /wiki/On_Growth_and_Form ↩

  4. Nazzi, F (2016). "The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb cells depends on the construction behavior of bees". Scientific Reports. 6: 28341. Bibcode:2016NatSR...628341N. doi:10.1038/srep28341. PMC 4913256. PMID 27320492. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4913256 ↩

  5. Nazzi, F (2016). "The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb cells depends on the construction behavior of bees". Scientific Reports. 6: 28341. Bibcode:2016NatSR...628341N. doi:10.1038/srep28341. PMC 4913256. PMID 27320492. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4913256 ↩

  6. Nazzi, F (2016). "The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb cells depends on the construction behavior of bees". Scientific Reports. 6: 28341. Bibcode:2016NatSR...628341N. doi:10.1038/srep28341. PMC 4913256. PMID 27320492. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4913256 ↩

  7. Frisch, Karl von (1974). Animal Architecture. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 9780151072514. 9780151072514 ↩

  8. Bessiere, Gustavo (1987). Il Calcolo Differenziale e Integrale—Reso Facile ed Attraente.IL (in Italian) (VII ed.). Milan: Hoepli. ISBN 9788820310110. 9788820310110 ↩

  9. Gianni A. Sarcone. "The solved angular puzzle of the honeycombs' cells". 2004. http://www.archimedes-lab.org/monthly_puzzles_72.html ↩

  10. Bauer, D; Bienefeld, K (2013). "Hexagonal comb cells of honeybees are not produced via a liquid equilibrium process". Naturwissenschaften. 100 (1): 45–9. Bibcode:2013NW....100...45B. doi:10.1007/s00114-012-0992-3. PMID 23149932. S2CID 11552726. /wiki/Bibcode_(identifier) ↩

  11. Bauer, D; Bienefeld, K (2013). "Hexagonal comb cells of honeybees are not produced via a liquid equilibrium process". Naturwissenschaften. 100 (1): 45–9. Bibcode:2013NW....100...45B. doi:10.1007/s00114-012-0992-3. PMID 23149932. S2CID 11552726. /wiki/Bibcode_(identifier) ↩

  12. Pirk, C. W.; Hepburn, H. R.; Radloff, S. E.; Tautz, J (2004). "Honeybee combs: Construction through a liquid equilibrium process?". Naturwissenschaften. 91 (7): 350–3. Bibcode:2004NW.....91..350P. doi:10.1007/s00114-004-0539-3. PMID 15257392. S2CID 31547154. /wiki/Bibcode_(identifier) ↩