484 
HONEYCOMB 
“The wax having been secreted, a single 
bee starts the first comb by attaching to the 
roof little masses of the plastic material, 
into which her scales are converted, by pro¬ 
longed chewing with secretion; others fol¬ 
low her example, and the processes of 
scooping and thinning commence, the 
parts removed being always added to the 
How combs are attached to a vertical support. 
edge of the work, so that, in the darkness, 
and between the bees, grows downward that 
wonderful combination of lightness and 
strength, grace and utility, which has so 
long provoked the wonder and awakened 
the speculation of the philosopher, the nat¬ 
uralist, and the mathematician.” 
A chief use for the honeycomb being to 
furnish cradles for the baby bees during 
their brood stage, the problem is to find 
what arrangement will accommodate them 
in the least space and with the least ex¬ 
penditure of wax. If a number of cylin¬ 
ders with rounding bottoms be piled, and 
just back of them, back to back, and, as 
closely as they can be packed, another 
series of cylinders piled, there will be an 
arrangement that will leave a great waste 
of room between the lines of contact of 
those cylinders, and another waste between 
the points of contact of the rounding bot¬ 
toms. If pressure be exerted on those cyl¬ 
inders so that the sides and bottoms come 
into contact, there will be cells that are 
six-sided, with bottoms that are made of 
three lozenge-shaped plates, or what, as a 
whole, is an exact counterpart of honey¬ 
comb. Some have argued that bees make 
the cells cylindrical in the first place, and 
then, by pressure from within, force the 
dells into the forms of hexagons; but, un¬ 
fortunately for this theory, plaster casts, 
of which cross-sections have been made of 
combs in all processes of construction, 
show that bees start their work by making 
true hexagons and not circles or cylinders. 
This can be seen by looking thru a piece 
of glass on which combs have been built. 
However the combs are made, their gen¬ 
eral construction is such that the great ec¬ 
onomy of space and material is effected, 
both for holding brood or honey. There 
would be an equal saving of wax if the 
cells could be square with flat bottoms; 
but such cells would not fit the young bees, 
nor would the comb be as strong. The 
hexagonal is the very best form of con¬ 
struction. 
By far the larger portion of the cells in 
a hive will be found to measure about five 
k '*&+3 a 8 a Mp2»^ 
... 
A characteristic spur of natural cotnb built from 
horizontal support. 
to the inch. These are called worker-cells, 
■and may be used for rearing worker-brood, 
or for storing honey or pollen. A smaller 
number of cells will be found to measure 
about four to the inch. These are called 
drone-cells, and may be used for rearing 
drone brood, or for storing honey—seldom 
for pollen. 
