Page 146 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

144 THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

Right: A worker bee manipulating wax and
building cells
Below: A section from a nearly complete
comb and the bees working on it

The way the comb cells
are joined together is
also of great interest.
Bees start on the next
one even before they
have finished building one
cell. Construction of new ad-
joining cells begins lower
down while the lateral walls of the first cells are being added. As con-
struction of the comb continues, new bees also become involved in this
process. Interestingly, every bee that takes part in subsequent comb build-
ing immediately realizes what stage the construction has already reached,
and knows where to begin.
After the comb cell has been shaped and brought to its final form, the
bees complete the process, hardening the wax with another regurgitated
liquid. This leads to the completion of the combs’ identical, flawless hexa-
gons. However, the number of
cells constructed by bees is
very large. For example, in
order to store 9.9 kilogram (22
pounds) of honey, bees need
to build a comb of 35,000
cells. 131
As can be seen from all this
information so far, there is a
literal perfection in the comb,