Honeycombs are essential for a bee colony, serving multiple vital functions such as laying the queen’s eggs, providing a crib for unborn bees, and acting as storage for food like pollen, honey, and nectar. Bees are true marvels of nature, and one of their most impressive feats is the creation of honeycomb structures. These intricate hexagonal wax structures are made up of thousands of perfectly shaped hexagonal cells, which bees use to store honey and pollen, as well as raise their brood.
Bees create honeycombs by producing beeswax in their bodies, which they secrete and mold into the fascinating hexagonal shape. This tedious task requires the combined effort of worker bees to create the hexagonal shape. The hexagon honeycomb design makes it time-efficient to allow as many worker bees to build the cells, building the structure faster and using the honeycombs for various purposes. One larvae per hexagon makes nurture easier, making the more compact the structure, the less wax needed to construct the honeycomb.
Hexagons are useful shapes for holding the queen bee’s eggs, storing pollen and honey, and gathering nectar and pollen. They produce excess honey that people can harvest and are chief pollinators for many types of plants. Bees’ beeswax is used by humans in various ways, but from the perspective of bees, they might just want to warm the whole thing and get away with it. Each step serves a purpose in creating a harmonious abode for their colony.
In summary, honeycombs are an incredible display of meticulousness, cooperative spirit, and undeniable ingenuity in the natural world. Bees create honeycombs through the process of producing beeswax in their bodies, which they then secrete and mold into the hexagonal shape.
| Article | Description | Site |
|---|---|---|
| Why do wasps and bees nests always form hexagons? | The hexagon honeycomb design makes it time-efficient to allow as many worker bees to build the cells, building the structure faster, and using … | quora.com |
| ELI5: How do bees/wasps instinctively know how to create … | The construction of honeycombs requires a lot of materials, and a less efficient design would make it more difficult for the bees to prosper. | reddit.com |
📹 Why do honeybees love hexagons? – Zack Patterson and Andy Peterson
Honeybees are some of nature’s finest mathematicians. Not only can they calculate angles and comprehend the roundness of the …
What Is Beeswax For?
Beeswax, known as cera alba, is a natural wax produced by honey bees (Apis genus) and has been utilized since prehistory for diverse applications. It serves as the first plastic, lubricant, waterproofing agent, and polish for wood and leather. Additionally, beeswax is essential in lost wax casting, candle making, cosmetics, and encaustic painting. It is formed into scales by worker bees' glands and used to create honey storage cells in the hive.
As part of a sustainable lifestyle, beeswax is celebrated for its zero-waste properties, especially in unwrapped solid form, making it a preferred choice for natural home cleaning and chemical-free body products.
Chemically, it consists of fatty acids and long-chain alcohols, allowing it to remain solid at room temperature but melt easily when warmed. Beyond its structural role in beehives, beeswax also aids in burning processes for leather, providing smooth edges and a polished finish. Although often replaced by petroleum-based waxes, beeswax remains relevant in various health and beauty products. However, there is limited scientific backing for its medicinal uses, such as for high cholesterol and fungal infections. Overall, beeswax exemplifies nature's efficiency and contribution to sustainable living.
Can Bees Reuse Honeycomb?
Yes, in most cases, beekeepers can effectively reuse frames and hive equipment from a deceased colony, which is both economically advantageous and beneficial for the bees. Reusing honeycombs allows bees to save energy they would otherwise spend building new comb, enabling them to focus on honey production instead of wax creation. However, there are specific circumstances where reusing combs is not recommended, particularly if the combs are contaminated with diseases such as American Foulbrood (AFB), European Foulbrood (EFB), or Nosema, or if pests like mites caused the colony's demise.
Before reusing any combs, a thorough inspection is crucial. Look for signs of mold, mildew, powdery spores, or other contaminants. Combs that remain structurally sound, free of webs, and retain their waxy appearance are generally safe to reuse. Cleaning methods include freezing the combs for at least three days to eliminate pests, using a solar wax melter or wax steamer to remove debris, or ensuring the combs are free from mold and other pollutants through careful cleaning processes.
Once cleaned, the combs can be repurposed for brood rearing or honey storage without retaining any unwanted tastes or smells. Additionally, old drawn comb can serve as an effective swarm lure; placing one frame or fewer of old comb in a swarm trap can increase the likelihood of attracting swarms. Reusing empty comb frames in subsequent years offers significant economic benefits by reducing the need to purchase new equipment.
It is essential to avoid reusing combs if the colony died from a communicable disease. If there is any uncertainty about the cause of death, especially concerning diseases like EFB, AFB, or Nosema, it is safer to discard the combs to prevent the spread of disease to new colonies. Conversely, if the colony perished due to non-communicable causes such as starvation, cold, or mites, reusing the combs is typically safe.
Beekeepers should prepare combs for reuse during the winter months to ensure they are ready for spring reintroduction. Properly prepared combs provide a head start for new bee colonies, facilitating quicker establishment and productivity.
In summary, with careful inspection and appropriate cleaning, reusing old honeycombs and hive equipment is generally advantageous. This practice supports bee health, enhances efficiency, and offers economic benefits, provided that potential disease risks are diligently managed.
Can You Eat Raw Honeycomb?
Honeycomb is 100% edible, though its texture may not appeal to everyone. Consuming raw honeycomb maximizes the health benefits from honey, as it retains the most enzymes, vitamins, and minerals. To enjoy it, crack it open and break it into pieces with your hands. However, honeycomb should not replace honey in recipes due to its chewy nature. It naturally stores honey and pollen and can help lower cholesterol and protect heart health. Rich in phenols and antioxidants, raw honey also aids in reducing blood pressure and improving circulation.
While honeycomb serves as a natural sweetener with anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties, it is essential to consume it in moderation due to the risk of botulinum spores, which can cause stomach issues if eaten in large quantities. For those new to honeycomb, it can be consumed raw, in tea, or paired with various foods. Tips include chewing, swallowing, or spitting the wax as preferred, while certain groups, like pregnant women and children under one year old, should avoid it.
Honeycomb offers numerous health benefits, including potential improvements in liver function and heart health. It encapsulates the purest form of honey, characterized as both rustic and sophisticated. Inquire about purchasing and storing honeycomb to fully enjoy this natural delicacy.
What Is The Purpose Of Honeycomb For Bees?
Honeybees create honeycomb, a remarkable structure composed of thousands of hexagonal cells made from natural beeswax, to store honey, pollen, and house their larvae. This intricate design functions as the core of the beehive, providing a safe, organized environment for the colony. Worker bees tirelessly construct the honeycomb, which serves both as a storage unit and a nurturing area for the brood, which includes eggs and larvae. Honeycomb allows bees to efficiently utilize resources; they consume approximately 8. 4 pounds of honey to produce just 1 pound of wax for comb construction.
Honeycomb is not only an aesthetic marvel of nature but also an engineering feat. Its hexagonal shapes provide maximum storage capacity while minimizing the amount of wax required. Beekeepers often harvest honey by removing sections of honeycomb, which holds unprocessed honey sealed within the wax. This design ensures the honey remains fresh and protected.
In addition to storage, honeycomb plays a vital role in the health of the hive. The stored honey and pollen are essential food sources for bees, while the brood represents the next generation of workers. Consuming local honeycomb is beneficial, supporting both bee health and local beekeepers. Furthermore, honeycomb is praised for its potential health benefits, including skin improvement, digestion aid, and immunity boost. Its ingenious construction keeps liquid honey contained, preventing spills and helping maintain hive organization, making honeycomb an essential aspect of bee life.
Do Wasps Build Honeycombs?
Wasps create nests using similar materials, but their size, shape, and location significantly differ by species. Commonly, these nests resemble honeycombs or enclosed paper structures. The building process involves wasps chewing wood fibers from old structures, which, combined with their saliva, forms a pulp that becomes a network of tiny cells in a honeycomb arrangement. The size and materials of these nests can be influenced by various factors, including the species, geographic location, and whether the wasps are social or solitary.
Wasp nests can be found in diverse locations, such as underground, hanging from tree branches, or under eaves. Unlike honeybees that create double-sided vertical wax combs, wasps build single-sided horizontal paper combs, although both species form hexagonal cells.
Wasp nests, such as those built by yellow jackets and hornets, can vary in size and location. There are three main shapes: umbrella-shaped, spherical, and others. While both bees and wasps exhibit similar architectural techniques, they use different materials; bees use wax while wasps use a paper-like substance. As the pulp dries, it hardens into a strong nest for the wasps’ offspring. Most wasps prefer to build in secluded areas where they can remain undisturbed.
Notably, unlike honeycombs, wasp nests consist of round cells that become hexagonal due to spatial efficiency. Wasps lack wax glands for creating honeycombs, relying instead on chewed wood fibers for their characteristic nests, contrasting with honeybees, which are thick and hairy and generally less aggressive, building their hives primarily in trees.
Why Do Bees Use Hexagons To Make Honeycomb?
La eficiencia de material es clave en la construcción de los panales de abejas, donde el uso de hexágonos minimiza la cantidad de cera necesaria. Esta forma permite a las abejas almacenar un gran volumen con el mínimo material, algo crucial para conservar energía y recursos. Al nacer, las celdas de cera son circulares, pero rápidamente se transforman en hexágonos redondeados, lo que ha intrigado a científicos y a la curiosidad popular. La pregunta es: ¿por qué las abejas eligen celdas hexagonales?
La respuesta reside en la eficiencia espacial, ya que los hexágonos maximizan el almacenamiento de miel y minimizan el desperdicio de espacio. Aunque podrían construir celdas con triángulos o cuadrados, los hexágonos son la mejor opción debido a su capacidad para encajar sin dejar huecos.
Las abejas producen cera desde glándulas en su abdomen, dando forma inicialmente a celdas tubulares que, al comprimirse, se ajustan naturalmente a la forma hexagonal. Este proceso, que aún se debate, sugiere que el calor corporal de las abejas puede ayudar a moldear la cera. Los hexágonos no solo sirven para almacenar miel, sino también como criaderos para las crías y espacios para guardar polen. En resumen, la estructura hexagonal del panal no solo maximiza la eficiencia en uso de material, sino que también permite a las abejas construir un hogar funcional y resistente.
What Insect Makes A Honeycomb Nest?
Honeybees establish their nests in various locations, such as hollows in trees and abandoned rodent burrows. Their nests are made entirely of wax, featuring a characteristic honeycomb structure where each hexagonal cell houses a single egg or developing bee. Honeybee hives are unique, consisting of distinct honeycomb-shaped compartments that can vary in size and shape. These bees convert collected plant nectar into honey within their nests, serving as a critical energy source for their colonies. Charles Darwin remarked on the remarkable instinct of bees to construct perfect honeycombs.
In contrast, paper wasps build nests that sometimes feature a honeycomb structure but differ in appearance and composition. Their nests, resembling cardboard, are constructed by females who dig individual holes in the ground. Unlike honeybees and bumblebees, carpenter bees are solitary and do not live in colonies; they drill into wooden structures to create their nests. These insects, including ants, wasps, bees, and termites, are known for building elaborate nests often hidden or underground. Overall, the nesting behavior of these insects displays a fascinating range of adaptations and structural designs tailored to their environments and life cycles.
Why Do Insects Use Hexagons?
Cobey noted that math has recently clarified why hexagons are the optimal shape for certain natural structures. She explained that hexagonal geometry minimizes material use while maximizing weight-bearing capacity, a principle evident in the honeycomb built by bees. These insects labor extensively to create the honeycomb, using wax produced by glands on their abdomens. Hexagons are employed in various designs, including bridges and airplanes, due to their ability to withstand significant force while using lighter materials.
The efficiency of hexagons lies in their ability to fill space without gaps, thereby requiring less wax for construction. As honeybees construct vertical combs composed of hexagonal cells, they optimize both storage and stability, allowing for the effective storage of food and eggs. This hexagonal configuration, known as the "honeycomb," has a total internal angle of 720 degrees and allows for seamless tiling of a plane. This arrangement is linked to Voronoi diagrams, showcasing the natural inclination of bees and wasps to build hexagonally structured nests.
Overall, hexagonal structures are evolutionarily favored for their practicality in maximizing resources, facilitating the rearing of brood, and storing food efficiently. The design of insect eyes, which are also hexagonally packed, is a result of natural processes that optimize light capture, reinforcing the theme of hexagonal efficiency in nature.
📹 HOW BEES MAKE HONEYCOMB – It Might Surprise You!
How is honeycomb made? Why is it hexagon-shaped? What do bees do with it? Learn about all about this genius use of space …
It seems like they chose the hexagon shape when in fact this is not true. The bees make wax circles at first, but wax is not solid and under its own weight all the little circles turn to hexagons. This is very efficient, because making circles is simpler, but hexagons have larger storage area for the same wax volume.
It`s not that they “choose” to build hexagons, it seems infact that they stick to circes/tubes, but wax as a material shapes itself into form because the stress in the walls leads the material to an optimal shape (it is assumed that it needs a certain enviromental temperature). My leightweight professor demonstrated this with paper tubes he glued together and the more of them you add, the more the middle part turns into hexagonal shapes. You can create a similar effect with soap bubbles, too. There are scientific studies on rather normal materials that form themselves into certain shapes if you just apply certain values of force, temperature, or even current etc.
The more you think of this the more interesting it becomes. This is a mathematical idea that the hexagon is the shape that tessellates with itself while still encompassing the greatest area with the least perimeter. We understand this through concepts in geometry. How bees figured this out is just amazing.
Thanks for the articles explaining this I think there is a small error in the balloon form of the beehive which is the format of a wasp hive not the bee hive Also, the bee hexagonal are not horizontal but also tilting a bit so no back dropping. This increases the efficiency avoiding dropping nectar (as when it reaches honey level it is closed) Thanks
If I remember my Huber correct (François Huber is the blind Swiss naturalist who laid the foundations for the scientific knowledge of the honey bee), bees start out by constructing circles by rotating their body around a fixed point. Each circle then changes into a hexagon as they continue the construction of each cell because of a specific property of the wax which appears a certain temperature, that alters the physical properties of the wax: the gaps between the circles contract and the sides become straight, effectively turning what was a circle into a hexagon. Saying that the bees “chose the hexagon” is a strange formulation. Instead, I’d say the hexagon shape appeared naturally.
Bees don’t create perfect hexagon but close to hexagon most likely due to six legs but surface tension before wax dries perfects those imperfect hexagons. In fact it’s quite possible evolution would have selected out species of bees that could not create shapes that would end up as hexagons so what survives is the most optimum solution
Thanks for the misleading animation of “Honey Bees” flying around a bald-faced hornet nest 0:34 Bees can produce wax for comb, but don’t build with “paper” like wasps do by chewing up wood fiber. It’s the bald-faced hornet (a kind of wasp) that makes a football shaped nest like that. Honey bees make their homes in tree hollows, rock overhangs or a man made structure. Most of the other 20,000 bee species nest in the ground (& don’t make honey. *Bumble bees are one of the few that nest in the ground and make honey.) In taxonomy, bees & wasps are in the same order (along with ants). That’s about as close as cats & wolves. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee
Lol I don’t think bees thought about wasted space but It was more pragmatic building process of going from one side of the wall to the next. Also they have compound eye with many ommatidia which has hexagonical-like resolution. They see through hexagon vision field and so they follow and build only hexagon-like patterns.
i think hexagonal structure are (is) more robust than a cube and triangle, actually a square can hold more space than a hexagonal shape but as he say there still empty space between circles, but as a shape is nearest to a circle-like it can be more resistant, a circle can resist to a lot of weight the intensity of weight divide into the circle circumference. we can use a cube it can be arranged so it leave no hallow area between them, but a cube may will be smashed at a less weight than a hexagon can tote.
There is hard work put into this article but the message is very very very bad. I hate it want scientist try to explain evolution using a purpose driven explanation. This is simply wrong, confuse and mislead new comers studying evolution. Please save the silly story telling and stick to trail and error and natural selection. If you had to use silly examples, at lease make it so that it fits the narrative of natural selection
I don’t think this is entirely accurate. Bees form the comb structure as an array of cylinders (circular), but given the warm temperatures in the hive and malleable materials, these cylinders steadily compress into their most stable state. Seeing as circle is surrounded by exactly 6 others, the 6-sided hexagon forms.
Solid particles in the melted thick liquid takes up the hexagon shape. One can experiment it. Heat the oil in a pan. Do not over heat it. Now put some mustard seeds in to it. Now you can see that the seeds inside will take hexagon shapes. If you keep heating the oil, the hexagon will break and the mustard will start crackling.
I think this is the best way to explain it: take a bunch of marbles and role them down a ramp. When they collect, they form the densest possible way to store them, in alternating rows. But then there are those gaps. Naturally, to fit more material means getting rid of those gaps and flattening the circle, and when you do that, the circle becomes a hexagon.
It’s rather simple, really. Circles get the most area (as you know from Geometry class). The more sides a regular figure has, the more circular it gets. The thing is, just like how there are only five platonic solids, there are only a finite number of regular figures that tessellate. A tessellation will have at least three figures meeting up at one point; otherwise it’ll just be two planes touching infinitely. There’s a bunch of Euler math on this, and Numberphile has some great articles explaining it. The most you can get out of a regular figure, then, is 120 degrees, which also happen to be the interior angles of a hexagon. Thus it is the most geometrically efficient way to get the most area per cell in a tessellation of cells without any wasted space.
There’s also an important phenomenon that this article misses which is a problem with circles, one that may be even more significant than just wasted space: Shapes that tesselate (can fill a plane, such as triangles, rectangles, and hexagons) allow multiple cells to share the same wall, which saves wax. With circles, only a small region of the perimeter can be shared between cells, whereas hexagons allow every edge to be shared between two cells. Consequently, beyond just saving space in the hive, hexagons actually allow for a better use of beeswax than circles do!
1.1 mill people have watched this and been mislead. This article should be corrected. Bees make circular cells which forms hexagons through surface tension. So much incorrect folklore being spread about hexagons, waggle dances and other aspects of bee life. The hexagon is a consequence rather than a design element. PLEASE CORRECT THE article, YOU ARE MISLEADING PEOPLE.
do you thing its possible that something programmed the bees to make the honey comb this way? cause we as humans need to use instruments to measure and make accurate calculation, yet this simple creature instinctively know how to do these things. maybe they are programmed like like biological machines to do there task.
En 3:14 debió decir mayor área con menor perímetro, bueno para que lo entiendan mejor dibujen un triángulo equilátero de lado 8cm, un cuadrado de lado 6cm y un hexágono regular de lado 4cm; luego al calcular su perímetro notarán que son iguales a 24cm cada uno, pero las áreas miden 27,68cm2 ; 36cm2 y 41,52 cm2 respectivamente, definitivamente el hexágono tiene mayor área. Claro que si fuera un octógono regular de lado 3cm tendría el mismo perímetro con mayor área de 43,45 cm2, pero surgiría el mismo problema de las circunferencias, es decir se desperdiciaría espacio.
I believe hexagons will be the best!! Why?? It’s stated in the article to make an efficient configuration, we need to maximum the number of sides. Alongside with that, notice that bees don’t want an empty space being a redundant. How to make this kind of configuration. Now, let’s purpose a geometric shape that has n sides. With a simple math, you can prove that the angle of each corner will be : 180 – 360/n degrees (It’s easy to show this) Now, to make an efficient configuration, a circle has to be divisible by this angle. in mathematical way : 360 | (180 – 360/n) or, 360 / (180 – 360/n) = integer simplify the left hand sides gives : 2n/(n-2) = integer with a little trick, the left sides can be written as : 2 + 4/(n-2) = integer since 2 is an integer, than : 4/(n-2) has to be an integer now, it’s as simple as finding an integer n, It’s easy to show that n can only be 3, 4, or 6. Since we need to maximum the number of sides, we choose n = 6. Which gives us a hexagons.
Turkey is a country with extremely diverse flora. Therefore, 12 different species of propolis have already been catalogued in the country. However, a special type of this variety stands out: Yesil propolis, produced in Kars province. This biodiversity is also present in the diversified flowering honey offering, the most exotic of which are orange, coffee, angico and mint from traditional eucalyptus. Palm heart and açaí, delicious and nutrient-rich foods are cultivated and managed in a sustainable and organic way, protecting the environment. The honey family is dedicated to promoting these treasures in the international market. The company, which launched Green Propolis exports to Japan in 1994, joins customers of the food, pharmaceutical and phototherapeutic segments in Japan, Taiwan, China, the United States, Canada and South Yesil. Kars has established itself as a reliable reference in the supply of propolis and honey with rigorous quality controls that guarantee the freshness and purity of honey products. Each product is analyzed by sampling in laboratories where physicochemical and biological parameters are verified and measures the amounts of biological markers as needed. Nutritious, offering high quality organic honey. Our honey contains vitamins (B, B1, B2, B5, B6, etc.), Mineral salts (phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, iron, etc.) and is a natural and healthy alternative to industrialized, refined sugars and artificial sweeteners. The flowering plants of Brazil are famous worldwide and produce a variety of honey products.
Well, I kind of doubt that the bees held a meeting or went to any drawing boards or math classes. I tend to think that they were each making adjacent cylindrical cells, and the fact that these were adjacent, or “packed” as we say in math, meant that they self-optimized as hexagons. Try laying some Pillsbury biscuits out on a pan such that they are all tangent circles. After baking, they will optimize their volume expansion by filling in the gaps to form hexagons. Still, I am with you- bees RULE. And bless you for spreading the word about the beauty of nature and mathematics!
FYI all of the cells in the graphics are in the wrong orientation bees build the walls of the cells with upright capital letter Y shape first. It has two points for anchor try drawing a line of Y’s then draw a second line of Y’s touching the bottom of the first line YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY .YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY you get the idea… imagine there’s no space between the lines. And when they are building comb they form hanging chains of bees like a plumb bob so the comb is always pointing straight down even if it does curve and curl around the cavity of the hive this might help straighten the sides of each newly built cell at the same time. Sorry for such a long comment 🥔
In Surah Nahl 16, Ayahs (68-69) Allah says: And your Lord inspired the bee: “Set up hives in the mountains, and in the trees, and in what they (people) construct.” Then eat of all the fruits, and go along the pathways of your Lord, with precision. From their bellies emerges a fluid of varying shades of colour, containing healing for the people. Surely in this is a sign for people who reflect.
Philip Ball would argue that it’s just the consequence of simple laws of physics where the surface tension is working to create uniform hexagons like many soap bubbles attached together. IMHO, it’s much simpler and more elegant an explanation than bees trial-and-error-ly trying out different patterns.
I have a feeling the whole bee’s and hexagon thingy is a bit of overthinking. This article kinda captures it, that they actually does circles, because it’s the most efficent way to rack up space. But if you look at many honeycombs, they actually just looks like hexagons from an overview, but are more or less just circles placed next to eachother. The space in between the circles are filled up with wax, but the hole itself is more or less a circle. If you minimixe the building material however, you have hexagons. But that’s just a natural step, but the goal is just to make lines and lines of circles.
The same hexagonal pattern is often used in mobile telephone networks to minimize the number of transceiver towers without leaving any uncovered space. El mismo patròn hexagonal se utiliza frecuentemente en redes de telefonía celular para minimizar el número de antenas sin dejar espacios sin cobertura.
While TED-EDs are great this one is controversial. There is a long standing debate whether the hexagonal shape is formed by the bees or if they form naturally through physical forces pulling and pushing on the wax cells (Of which Charles Darwin was a notable supporter). Nature has a great article about it: nature.com/news/how-honeycombs-can-build-themselves-1.13398
This really isn’t a geometry problem … its a perimeter force problem. Here the resulting shape has more to do with the “surface tension” of co-joined wall surfaces pulling against each other causing the new shape. This rebalancing of natural tension force vectors cause the round walls to become hex. This can be viewed pushing soap bubbles together.
Bees are amazing and critical insects but I’m not sure this information is correct. Research shows that the hexagonal shape is a result from the bee- made circle structures melting onto each-other. The stacked circles work as they fit the bees body shape, and then pressure and heat pushes all edges together, filling gaps, to create the many hexagons. It is a pattern that results from bee activity yes, but not from a mathematical design theory.
Me -Thinks the fact that bees are insects and like all insects have six legs the measurements of the comb are just a function of the little creatures leg positions as the angle of the legs spaced as they could be or maybe are the reason for what we see as nice hexagonal cells and no math was ever required.Then again maybe I know not what I speak of as i move about in 60 degree angles like what I have seen bees actually do.Mathematicians they are not! But I do love these lovely and oh so useful little denizens of this world of ours. Bees Rock!!!
They don’t love Hexagons. To understand why Hexagons are formed when Bee’s build their nests, you must understand certain natural physical forces & certain mechanical properties of nature. When a malleable, typically spherical or cylindrical material is placed alongside each other, the shape starts to form that of a specific shape. Either instantly, or over time; Depending on a few different factors, including the density of the substance. It’s not common in much denser materials, but can occur. A simple example can Bee used with soap bubbles. When you start placing more & more bubbles around each other, you’ll start to see part of the bubbles take on that of a more Triangular shape or angle & then more of a Hexagonal shape on the inner edges of each bubble the more bubbles are added. If there’s a center bubble, it will then Bee in the shape of Hexagon. If there is no center bubble, part of each bubble will start to develop an outline that would resemble a Hexagon. It is more to do with creating a stable force around the internal edges of each bubble at an angle around 120 degrees. The forces between each bubble is then balanced out & stable around each other. If you exert enough force or energy from one bubble to another, it will either merge the two or pop one of them. Bee’s make cylindrical chambers used as a nursery for their larvae, to also create honey, as well as a food store. The chambers that are filled with warm, regurgitated fluids (aka Honey) can Bee described as the beginning stages for when it starts to take on the Hexagonal, Honeycomb shape.
Hexagons are found everywhere in the natural world. Even with non-living things like mineral and crystal formations. No big wonder that living things conform to the math (a term humans invented to understand the world). Explore the cosmos’ relationship to ‘the golden ratio’ . It seems to be everywhere in the macroverse.
Bees make circles, cylinders the size of their body, building up the sides as they turn building up the layers, once heated the cylinders side form flat sides with the adjacent cell thus the hexagonal shape comes about. like soap bubbles form flat sides next to each other. Bees are very good at producing heat it how they can mold the wax and kill some intruders with hard exoskeletons like hornets.
Create a flower of life pattern and connect the points. Its the same thing, octagons. Although this pattern is relevant to all of creation, the first 7 circles make the seed of light, similar to the 7 days of creation in genesis. from there you keep going, getting all the platonic solids and metatrons cube, the egg of life (what we looked like as tiny little cells) the tree of life . . . sacred geometry is awsome
This does a disservice to evolution education >:( Bees don’t decide anything, it’s in their genes, it’s instinctive. As bees (like all life) reproduce there is variation in each offspring, like a bit of experimentation. If the new bee’s slightly different instincts make it build a hive which is slightly stronger and better, then the bee will survive better, and this means it will reproduce better – it’s kids will carry the genes to build the better hives. Whereas if the variation gave the bee the instincts to build a worse hive, then it will survive worse, it might die without having any kids at all, so the genes will not be passed on. Thus bad experiments get eliminated and good experiments become the next generation, so each generation is slightly better at building hives than the last was. Bees that can’t build good hives DIE, and the only ones left are the ones who build good hives, that’s the bees we’re seeing – the ones who were lucky enough to be born with the right instincts, everyone else is dead. The bees don’t think about it or decide anything, they’re just born with a slightly experimental variation in their instincts which either helps them live or die. DEATH is the one making the decisions, not the bee 🙁
The explanation about why hexagons are used seems seriously wrong to me. If the wall thickness of the shape (say a triangle) was infinitely small, the shape wouldn’t affect the storage size of the entire honeycomb at all – no matter what shape is used as long as it is fully stackable (say a square or a hexagon). However, the wall thickness does matter because otherwise the honeycomb would collapse. The bee “engineer” probably tries to come up with a shape that provides maximum honeycomb rigidity with the least amount of bee wax. Coincidentally, there will be more storage space because there is less bee wax in a given volume.
“The exagon have more surface than the square or the triangle”? That’s assuming you take the same side size for each. And more importantly, there is no link with how much honey you can store in the hive! On a paving of squares, triangles or exagons, fiting in 1m², the surface filled by the exagons (or triangles or squares) is…. 1m²! A wise question would be: Assuming the walls of each cells is (let’s say) 1mm thick, how much surface did I lose on 1m², using a triangles or exagons? But well, to do the comparison, do we have to take exagons and triangles of the same surface (because we need to store particular amount of honey because it’s what a bee produce in a day)? Or the same side size (because bees only knows how to build walls of a certain size)? Or in wich we can fit a circle of 0.5cm of diameter (so a bee can fit in)? Or something else? Bees have more constraints on how a cell should be. If the “objective” (Yes, I know who Darwin is, it’s just a way of speaking) was only to store a maximum of honey with a minimum wax amount, hives would be giant balls with no walls in it. The article conclusion show the right solution (exagons) but for the wrong reason and is a bit disappointing.
They made the circles, and then turn into hexagons. No special bee school or mathematics. Just making an easy shape and then the forces of the world turned into hexagons. I looked at honeycomb pictures and they look like deformed circles to me. Some were even perfect circles. Either that or a circle for storage with a hexagon frame outside it.
How did evolution come up with this shape? I mean, what did it look like before it was a hexagon, and when they changed shape into a hexagon, did they all just decide collectively that they should start to build hexagons? It seems like there could have been some disagreement between the bees when they was about to change shape, which would not have been the most beneficial from an evolutionary perspective.
Darwin writes about bees and their hexagon in his, “On the Origin of Species.” Right before his discussion about bees, Darwin writes about ants. Darwin’s musings on ants are some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever read. Darwin knew that if he used certain words when describing ants, he’d crack-up his readers. Strange to find laughs inside Darwin, but these laughs are there.
Have you ever seen real honeycomb? The cells are actually have round shape, as most natural, the easiest shape to build. Their sides just pushed together in some places (not everywhere) which makes them look like a hexagon. Try to make tubes of a soft material (say, paper), put them in stack and put it under pressure. You’ll likely get the hexagon.
cute, but actually not quite accurate. The bees tend to build circular, but while working the tubes of wax can sort melt together, which results in a hexagonal form. This is the most lightweight yet robust structure. it can and does form naturally. You can try it at home with some cut up straws and heat source like a hair dryer
Bees don’t choose nor think as far as we know. This explains how humans would deal with the issue. For bees, it’s an issue of instinct and natural selection. The most efficient solution developed over time because it would be the most successful. That was mentioned at the end, about evolution, but everything before that was misleading.
Actually is not correct to say “most space to store the honey for the least amount of wax”. Correct is “most space to store the honey for a GIVEN amount of wax”. One amoumt has to be FIX and the other to be MAXIMIZED or MINIMIZED. If one ask “Where can I buy the maximum amount of oranges for 1 dollar ? he may get an answer. Another way to put it is “Where can I buy 10 kilograms of oranges for the least dollars (cheapest)?” But in both cases one of the quantity has to be fix and the other optimized.
Try getting a lot of bubbles together like google.ca/search?q=bubbles+hexagon&safe=strict&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjpzLTK6KnQAhUB74MKHbQTDPAQ_AUICCgB&biw=1600&bih=791. I’m not doing anything, but you will notice that the bubbles will form hexagons. Bees are as good as a mathematician as plants.
Maybe someone who is more intelligent than me can explain how you create a bee from nothing. They evolved, indeed but from what. They must like every thing in existence have been made from something. Who made the something. Scientists explain matter but cannot explain what matter came from. Therefore science is floored it cannot go beyond the created. Steam is from water if we have no water? Who can create something from nothing.🙂
In the middle of the night I wondered how the hexagon shape is made (I am very curious and like to learn), and now this morning you answered that question and more. 😊 Amazing how bees do all of this! Why are the frames close together, and where would the bees construct up a hive if not in an human-made one? Thank you for this educational article!