Talk:Honeycomb
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"A third possibility is that honeybees have some kind of understanding of the fundamental geometry which underlies the physical universe." Is there enough evidence for this to be in an encyclopedic article?
- Of course they have a practical understanding of "of the fundamental geometry which underlies the physical universe." After all, worker bees plane the cell walls to a remarkably consistent .0025" thickness. It is believed that they do so by gauging the flex of the walls as they work it with their mandibles. How (or whether) they compensate for the effects of temperature on the rigidity or compliance of the wax, is a matter for speculation. Whether they hew to the precepts of the Ideal Triangle and its underlying stability, is more abstractly speculative, and way beyond the scope of this article. In my humble opinion. ;-) Just plain Bill 15:53, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] sandwich panel
For example the floorboards of a Beagle Pup, or the portable stage floor used by the Bread and Puppet Theater.
[edit] Merge from brood comb
I recommend that we merge this page with the current contents of the brood comb page. Bees do not draw an artificial distinction between honeycomb and broodcomb. The size of the brood nest naturally varies through the year as the bees need more space to raise brood. If the only space available is in the honey supers, they will raise brood up there. (Some beekeepers do try to control this through the use of queen excluders but they have their own disadvantages and failings.) Neither page is so large that we should be thinking of splitting the pages yet. Rossami (talk) 18:28, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
I'd rather see them kept separate. Honeycomb, at least in the public mind, refers to new comb that is edible, whether in sections, cut comb or chunk comb in jars. No beekeeper would use brood comb for this purpose. Pollinator 03:41, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
All honeycomb is not comb honey, regardless of what "the public" may be presumed to think. The audiences for Comb honey, Honeycomb, Brood comb, and Brood (honeybee) will be only slightly different, probably with a lot of overlap. I don't think we need separate articles for drone comb and burr comb, but I don't see a pressing need to merge the two articles suggested above. The strongest case I see for merging is Brood comb and Brood (honeybee). Just another opinion, Just plain Bill 03:56, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Comb honey is the "beekeeper's lunch"
One summer in the early 1990's I worked for Al Carl, the chief Massachusetts bee inspector. My area was Norfolk county, but together with Mr. Carl, out towards the Cape (Cape Cod) we found the first recorded instance of Varroa jacobsonii in Massachusetts, using the ether roll test. Mr. Carl was the one who called wild honeycomb found between the top bars of one super and the bottom bars of the one above, the "beekeeper's lunch." Cite that as a "private communication," if you will. ;-) __Just plain Bill 20:58, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Cell alignment
I just removed this paragraph from the article:
- [the picture on the left (Honeycomb-Process.png) shows the growing cells to be vertically aligned with horizontal floors and angled walls. These must be non-union bees.]
Never mind the frivolous last sentence, the concern is a valid one. The box comb pic is clearly right-side up, as shown by the partially drawn comb, and the "floors" are level, while the walls are angled. Searching for images of comb in frames, one may find cells lined up either horizontally or vertically. Artifact of how foundation is offered to the bees? Perhaps. The pic mentioned is too dark and low-res for me to see if there are thin strips of foundation at the top of each box, or not.
This issue deserves to have some knowledgeable person give it a sentence or two and clear it up. __Just plain Bill 19:30, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Instinct, or what else?
I just removed this paragraph from the article:
It is unlikely that the honey bee constructs the honeycomb based on instinct, fossils from millions of years ago have show honey comb was always the same shape, and if honey bee's were to experiment with differnt shapes they would have long died before they found a shape that both protected their eggs and provided a sterdy home for hundeds of bees.
Somebody else may have fun getting it to work... Not sure what the editor meant by "instinct" in this context. __Just plain Bill (talk) 04:31, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Robbery
Just undid a change from "robbing the bees" to "extracting." Taking honeycomb out of the hive is not extracting, that comes later, in the honey house. Bees will rob honey from weak, poorly guarded hives. Humans rob honey from bee hives. A beekeeper who robs the bees too much will not be keeping them for very long. This is not merely my opinion, but commonly known beekeeping lore. __Just plain Bill (talk) 12:59, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] "Ideal" geometry?
Just undid the removal of text from the geometry section. The removed text is relevant, in that it shows that although the bees build comb in a simpler geometry than that shown by Tóth, it is good enough for their purposes. It has everything to do with an economy of pattern complexity imposed by the neurological limitations of an individual worker bee, and very little to do with some theoretical ideal. __Just plain Bill (talk) 21:43, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
