But the real question is WHY do bees create such incredible structures? While this is a common condiment, bees do not necessarily create honey for humans to benefit. Though humans can enjoy the many health benefits offered by honey, it is primarily essential for bees to survive the winter months. During these cold months , they are unable to gather nectar and pollen outside of the hive.
This is typically in wooden structures, rock crevices, undersides of roofs, or really any place they feel provides them with protection from the elements. After they find a safe and protected place, the group of bees begin construction at the top and work their way down. Why the hexagon, of all shapes? Bees are extremely intelligent. Scientists even claim that bees are excellent mathematicians. Honeybees have figured out that packing a hexagonal pattern together over and over again creates the most efficient use of space.
This shape allows the bee to fit into the structure, as well as contains the nectar and stores it. The mechanism for this transformation is the flow of molten visco-elastic wax near the triple junction between the neighbouring circular cells. The flow may be unconstrained or constrained by the unmolten wax away from the junction. Figure 1. Online version in colour. Register or Log In. The Magazine Shop. This deformation can be temporary or permanent.
Because living systems must retain their most efficient form, they must ensure that any deformation is temporary. Managing compression also provides an opportunity to lessen the effects of other forces. Living systems have strategies to help prevent compression or recover from it, while maintaining function.
For example, African elephant adults weigh from 4, to 6, kilograms. Because they must hold all of that weight on their four feet, the tissues of their feet have features that enable compression to absorb and distribute forces. Melting often occurs as a result of exposure to high heat or a change in pressure. Many organisms have found ways to manage these forces, helping prevent structural failure. Resources are limited and the simple act of retaining them requires resources, especially energy.
Living systems must constantly balance the value of resources obtained with the costs of resources expended; failure to do so can result in death or prevent reproduction. Living systems therefore optimize, rather than maximize, resource use. Optimizing shape ultimately optimizes materials and energy.
Most live on land, but many live in freshwater or saltwater marshes for part of their life cycles. Insects have three distinct body sections: a head, which has specialized mouthparts, a thorax, which has jointed legs, and an abdomen. They have well-developed nervous and sensory systems, and are the only invertebrate that can fly, thanks to their lightweight exoskeletons and small size.
The question of why honey bees adapted to building their nests from hexagonal cells has been debated for centuries. Wax is first secreted by young bees, and carefully constructed into perfectly uniform hexagonal-shaped wax cells by many worker bees. Many individual cells must be made in order to have sufficient comb for storing honey. It is also worth mentioning that some of the hexagonal wax cells will actually be used for rearing their young and these are called brood cells.
Why are the cells hexagon shaped, rather than say, round, triangular, or even square? In fact, each cell is the shape of a hexagonal prism. By ensuring that all cells are identical and with uniform, straight edges, then the cells fit perfectly, neatly and tight together. Gaps are minimized, meaning that no vital space is wasted, and with the exception of outer cells each individual cell shares its walls with its neighbour.
All this means that bees are able to produce the maximum number of cells with the amount of wax used. Additionally, it should be remembered that the whole honey bee colony operates as a super organism, and the survival of the whole colony depends upon the proper functioning of each of the parts, so it would surely seem more efficient for bees to be working to produce identical cells which fit together.
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