How do Honey Bees Build Their Hives?

Honey bees are amazing creatures and have always inspired us at Honey Bees Roofing & Solar. Bees are hard-working and diligent creatures that are always working towards what’s best for the hive. However, not everyone knows quite what goes into the work of the honey bees. One major job for honey bees is building and caring for their hive, but how do honey bees build their hives?

Creating the Materials

Honey bees make their hives out of hexagonal tubes made of wax. When a worker bee turns around ten days old they become able to create this wax, using sugar content from honey. The bees secrete the wax from their abdomen. After secreting the wax, bees gather it and soften it by chewing the wax. The honey bees then work together to work with the wax to create the six-sided tubes, or cells, that make up the hive. They repeat this process thousands of times to build up the honeycombs they’ll live in. Just one hive can house 100,000 individual cells all made by the worker bees. Bees store honey near the top of the hive. They store pollen around the middle of the hive and use the lower-most cells to raise the honey bee queen’s larvae.

Why Hexagons?

Honeycomb is the broad term for the structure of hexagonal cells inside a beehive. But why do bees always use hexagons? Well, a roman known as Pappus of Alexandria hypothesized that it allowed for the hive to spend less wax and energy creating the wall, while simultaneously maintaining as much storage space and structure as possible. This was proven correct in 1999 by mathematician Thomas C Hales and is now known as the Honeycomb Conjecture. Honey bees have been using advanced building techniques for thousands of years to maintain their homes. They even measure each cell using their bodies to make each cell perfectly.

Where Hives are Located

Honey bees can live all over the world, both in the wild and in domestication. In the wild, they try to create hives off of the ground, like in trees and rock crevices. They also will rarely make their homes inside the walls of buildings. Honey bees in temperate climates have to store large amounts of honey as insulation for their nests in the warmer months. More tropical bees don’t need to keep as much honey on hand since the weather is more consistently warm.

Honey bees build their hives using wax they can secrete to make mathematically efficient honeycombs to get the most out of their space. They work hard every day for the betterment of their community. At Honey Bees Roofing & Solar, we strive to be like the noble honey bee. By making sure our work is top of the line as well as efficient, we can ensure we’re doing our best to better our local community. If you need a hardworking roofing contractor for your next project, Contact Honey Bees Roofing & Solar online or give us a call today at 817-668-6131!