If one divides a comb down the middle, a most interesting vista opens up. The comb has a partition wall that, like the other parts of the comb, is made from wax and forms a common foundation for the mirror-image cells on both sides. The common floor of the cells is not level, but a series of depressions are made to fit into each other in order to save space. The side walls of each hexagon stand at a slight incline in respect of the partition wall. This incline prevents honey flowing out of filled cells.122

In addition, there is also a hierarchy in the hive, in that the cells for workers are higher up and those for the drone males, which are fewer in number, are lower down. The queen cells are constructed at the very lowest level. All these brood cells are constructed according to need. For example, when the number of males in the hive drops, or at the end of winter (during winter, there are no drones in the hive), the bees start to make the rather larger cells to accommodate the males. In the same way, queen cells are constructed only when a new queen is required in the hive.

In the construction of the combs, there are a great many other important details such as the mathematical calculations required during the production and use of the raw material for the comb-all quite astonishing.

There is a most regular structure in the combs, so that the honey and larvae never become intermingled.

The First Stage in Comb Construction: Wax Production

The wax emerges as plates in the apertures above.

Beeswax is the main building material in the comb. Bees secrete wax from four pairs of glands under their abdomens. Where these glands meet, there are two small apertures. Here the wax is secreted, in small, thin scales. To collect this wax, bees use the hooks made of the small hairs on their hindlegs. They then push the wax forward to their middle legs, then to their forelegs. (Bees have six legs.) Finally, they pick the wax up in their mouths and make it malleable by chewing it.123 As soon as one scale of wax is removed, another immediately emerges behind it.

In the secretion of wax, heat is the most important factor. For that reason, when workers begin to construct the comb, they first come together in a chain resembling a large ball. The 35 degrees centigrade (95oF) temperature necessary for beeswax to become malleable is thus ensured, and thus it becomes a pliable substance suited to construction.

Beeswax is white when first secreted. After pollen and other materials are mixed into it, the color turns yellow and brown. The chemical ingredients of beeswax are as follows:124

Hydrocarbon . . . 14%

Monoesters . . . 35%

Diesters . . . 14%

Hydroxy-polyesters . . . 8%

Free acids . . . 12%

The process of wax production necessitates substantial quantities of energy. Bees consume approximately 22 kilograms (48.5 pounds) of honey in order to make 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of beeswax. Bees take beads of wax from their secretion glands in a size no larger than the head of a pin.125 This makes it clearer why beeswax is so valuable. Bees get the maximum use out of beeswax by using even the very tiniest particles. Indeed, it has been observed that even when they must abandon the hive entirely, they prefer to carry beeswax to the new hive rather than produce new wax by consuming honey. The German scientist N. Koeniger researched this subject and found a colony which was abandoning its old hive to establish a new one. The following day, when the workers returned to the hive, Koeniger observed them chewing up the wax from the old hive and carrying it off to the new one. The reason for this determined behavior is that so much of the bee's energy goes into wax production.126

Bees use their wax in a most economical way to build the most honeycomb with the least possible amount of wax. For example, it has been calculated that bees use only 40 grams (1.4 ounce) of wax to make a comb 22.5 by 37 centimeters (8.9 by 14.5 inches) in dimension. Such a comb can hold more than two kilograms (four pounds) of honey.127

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• 123. Karl von Frisch, Arilarin Hayati (The Life of Bees), p.22
• 124. Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey Bee, p.36
• 125. Ibid., p.83
• 126. Karl von Frisch, Animal Architecture, p.95
• 127. Ibid., p.87

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