Holiday Rush

The Beeza Honey team is hard at work fulfilling Christmas orders;  our supply of 2017 honey is getting low, so get your Christmas order in now.  The elves are ready!

Why is honeycomb hexagonal?

The perfect hexagonal shape of honeycomb cells — once thought to be an incredible feat of math-savvy insects has now been explained by simple mechanics.  Scientists have marveled at the angular perfection of honeycomb for centuries, but none have been able to clearly describe how it forms. Engineers in the U.K. and China have taken a step forward by showing that the cells actually start off as circles — molded by the shape of a bee's body and then flow into a hexagonal pattern seconds later.

Using a honeycomb grown at a research facility in Beijing, the researchers were able to carefully ward off the bees and photograph the bare honeycomb seconds after formation, providing the first clear evidence that cells naturally start as circles. They then observed honeybees heating the wax after the initial cell formation — a phenomenon identified in previous studies, but never analyzed in close detail — and found this to be the key step in hexagon-formation.  By heating the cells, the bees cause the wax to become molten and flow like lava. Once the wax starts flowing, the cell walls naturally fall flat and take on the shape of a hexagon, like adjoining bubbles in a bath. This is physically the simplest and most stable way for cylinders to merge, Karihaloo said.

Honeycomb cells start off as circles within the first few seconds of formation (a) and then eventually morph into hexagons (b).
(Photo: B.L. Karihaloo, K. Zhang and J. Wang)  

Post text excerpted from Mother Nature Network, Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company.

Hunkering down for Winter

We started our hives in the river bottom along the Flatrock Creek that bisects our farm; the bees were very happy for a number of years.  But 11 months ago this month, freezing fog developed in the valley so quickly that the bees didn't have time to get back in a warm huddle.  We lost over 80% of our hives. 

To give the bees a better chance of surviving winter conditions, we re-positioned the hives up on the ridge this Fall where freezing fog is less likely.  It appears to be a great site where the bees can still  easily access water, our wildflower field, field edges and wooded areas that together provide a diverse and healthy environment for the bees.

This time of year, the female worker bees seal all of the gaps in the hive with propolis and kick the males out to preserve their honey stores for the winter.  They cluster around the queen and keep her at a toasty 95 degrees all winter long by vibrating their wing muscles which burns calories and gives off heat.  Aren't they amazing!?