The Types of Honeycomb

Always wear protective clothing when handling bees.

Honeycomb is the central structure of a honeybee hive. Honeycomb is constructed of vertical panels filled with six-sided cells. The cells are made of beeswax. Beeswax comes from the glands of the worker honeybee located on the underside. Worker bees produce beeswax only between day 12 and 15 in their lifetime. Once the beeswax is made, house bees form it into honeycomb with their mouth. The six-sided cells are used to raise young bees and to store honey and pollen. Honeycomb has perfectly formed cells on both sides. The distance between the cells is dependent upon whether they are made to raise young bees or hold food.

Honeycomb

Bees are continuously working producing honey.

Honeycomb is made in the dark with many bees working at the same time to build the honeycomb. Each side of the honeycomb is uniform and its purpose determines the location of the honeycomb within the confines of the hive. The honeybee queen deposits her eggs into the cells of the honeycomb. This breeding area is called the brood comb. Scholars in ancient Greece were awestruck by the geometrics of honeycomb because of its exact measurements and efficiency.

Honey

Honey is a golden, thick liquid produced from flower nectar and certain bees. Honeybees have the ability to turn flower nectar into honey. Honey is a food product for the honeybee to carry them through seasons when flowers produce no nectar. Honeybees are active all year round regardless of weather. In the winter, honeybees consume and their body metabolizes honey to prevent the bees from freezing and dying.

Beehive

Within the beehive there is only one queen bee. The purpose of the queen bee is to become impregnated and lay eggs in the honeycomb to produce more bees. A queen bee can lay more than 1,500 eggs a day in the honeycomb. The lifespan of a queen bee is two years. Drone bees are male and they do not have stingers. The lifespan of a drone is eight weeks. The sole purpose of a drone is to impregnate the queen bee. If the drone lives until the end of the warm season, it will be driven out of the beehive to die. After impregnating the queen, the drone is considered non-essential to the beehive. Worker bees maintain and operate the beehive. Young worker bees are called house bees because they produce the beeswax to make the honeycomb. As the bee ages, it becomes a field bee. Field bees forage the outside environment for nectar, pollen and water. All three substances are brought back to the beehive and are used to make honeycomb and honey. The lifespan of a bee depends on when in the season they are born. If born early in the spring, life expectancy is six weeks; if born in the fall, life expectancy is to the next spring.

Honeybees

There are three types of honeybees: eastern, giant and western. European cave painting show people harvesting honey 8,000 years ago. Rather than going out to forage honey, man began building structures to attract and house honeybees. Beekeeping is a skill traced back to the early Egyptians and the same methods of beekeeping are employed today. The most recognized and domesticated honeybee is the western bee. The giant and the eastern bee do not nest in cavities, making them more difficult to house than the western bee.

References

• Great Plains Nature Center: Honeybee
• Benefits of Honey and Honeybees: What is Bee Honeycomb?
• Backyard Beekeepers Association: Facts About Honeybees

Resources

• Adkins Bee Removal: Bee Control
• Bees-Online: Removing Honey Bees from Inside a Wall
• Bee Pure Honey: Honey Comb