Page 152 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

150 THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

because this will show by how much the two bricks at the end need to be
shortened. For example, if this value is 0.25, then the total length of the
bricks at the ends must not exceed 0.25. You can make the necessary ad-
justment according to whatever figure you obtain.
- After shortening the two end bricks according to that figure, you can
then lay all the others in place. When you reach the middle, the final brick
should fit perfectly—that is, of course, as long as you’ve done all the cal-
culations correctly!
This analogy shows that for a human, success is possible only by carry-
ing out a number of calculations and using various pieces of measuring
equipment.
Let us now consider the calculations performed by bees, which are far
more complicated than those in our example of the bricks, and which em-
ploy no measuring equipment at all.
Remember that bees do not draw lines on a flat field or line bricks up
together, but add equal-sized hexagons to one another. Bees are insects
with a 0.74 cubic millimeter brain and weighing between 80 and 100 mil-
ligrams (0.00017 and 0.00022 of a pound). 134 In addition, they perform cal-
culations of which only human beings are capable, and manage
mathematical feats that even we humans would sometimes find difficult,
to make equal-sized hexagons. Bees are capable of all these calculations
and measurements as they build their honeycombs, which they accom-
plish by acting in complete harmony together.
The width of the cells which bees make out of wax is always between
5.2 and 5.4 millimeters (0.20 to 0.21 inches). In order to squeeze the cell
into a limited space with no problems arising, the width of the semi-
hexagonal cells at the extremities is of great importance. If the cells at both
(and sometimes also the third) edges are slightly too wide or too narrow,
then there will be faulty connections where the parts of the comb are
joined at the middle. An important point here needs to be borne in mind:
Even if the job is started by making perfect calculations, if one group of
bees starts slightly above or below the others, then by the time they reach
each other, the rows of cells will be slightly out of line and it will be im-