I went to bee school. I read from the internet. I've read books, newsletters, and magazines. And the more I learn, the greater my sense of awe and respect grows for the honeybees. They have got to be the coolest creatures on the planet.
They make wax! And that isn't the coolest part. The fact that they work it and use it to not only to cradle their young, but to warehouse their perfect food (which they make themselves) is totally amazing. And that isn't the coolest part. The coolest part is that they have selected the perfect shape-- the six sided cell in order to optimize the use and preservation of precious resources.
I imagine all beekeepers eventually come across this information in some form - but this book that I've been reading called 'The Dancing Bees' by Karl von Frisch does a side by side comparison and depicts clearly how of many different possible shapes a bee could use to construct their brood and storage units, the hexagon is the optimal choice which makes maximum use of available space and coincidentally uses the least amount of wax possible in comb construction.
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