Page 135 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

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ne of the most amazing distinctions about bees is the hexago-
nal comb cells they make. Watching a large group of bees
Obuilding honeycombs, one assumes that the end result must be
total confusion. There seems little chance that these insects, which all seem
to be acting independently of one another, could ever produce such im-
posing structures. Contrary to appearances, however, bees work together
in building the comb, in total harmony and in an exceedingly ordered
manner. In fact, although they start from different points, they all build
cells of exactly the same size. The joins where they meet in the middle are
invisible, and there is never any error in the angles of their hexagons.
Bees build combs only when there is a need in the hive. They build
these for shelter, storing food and raising larvae, and every aspect of the
combs is regulated. Each is double-sided, for instance, with cells sharing a
common base; and each comb face can have hundreds or even thousands
of cells, produced in an ordered manner to be filled with honey, pollen and
eggs.
The top of the comb down to the middle is filled with honey. Pollen is
stored underneath these, with eggs at the very bottom. The honey stores
also continue at the sides of the hive. However, the workers always store a
few rows of pollen between the larval chambers and those used for
honey. 120 This prevents the three contents—honey, larvae and pollen from
becoming mixed up in the near-total darkness of the hive. Honey and lar-
vae being kept separate is very definitely most of all to humans’ benefit,
otherwise bee-keepers would face an irresoluble problem: Seeking to sep-
arate one part of the honeycomb in their efforts to extract the honey would
inevitably harm the new members of the colony. The presence of larvae in
the honey would also make it far less palatable.
Again, conscious behavior permits this separation. In appearance,
there is no difference among the cells in the comb for larvae, pollen and
honey—they are all identical. But despite this resemblance, as we have al-
ready seen, the queen never makes the mistake of laying her eggs in
empty cells intended for honey or pollen, but always lays them in the right

Adnan Oktar