HOW HONEY COMB CELLS ARE MADE
Courtesy Technical World.
This picture of the little girl blowing soap bubbles illustrates the latest answer of science to one of Nature's
oldest conundrums:
Why are the cells of the honey comb six sided?1' Look at the bubbles and see if you can't find this answer before I tell you.
Ever since King Mykennos of Egypt made his royal sign in sealing wax with the image of the bee in his ring—and long, long before that—men have kept and studied bees and spoken of their wonderful instinct in making their cells six-sided. Round cells waste space; six-sided cells make use of all the space and make the comb stronger because the cells support each other better.
Now it is pointed put that the bees make the cells round in the first place; as you can see in the next picture they grow six-sided as the frames fill. So it is the pressure_of the cells against each other that makes them six-sided, just as the pressure of the soap bubbles is changing them from round to six-sided figures. The soap bubbles do not take an equal sided shape because they are not strong enough and last too short a time.
A comb of 4000 cells is made in twenty-four hours. (How many cells an hour?)
After the breeding season the cells are built out longer and turned up at the end to keep the honey from spilling out until the cells are filled.
This picture shows the frames which are used in artificial hives. The bees begin to build the comb from the top of each section. When filled with honey, the bees seal the cells with wax. The frames are easily lifted from the hive at the convenience of the beekeeper.
