Honey bees are social insects. They build a family nest to store honey and raise offspring. It consists of eight combs. Wax is used as a building material.
Family nest
The whole family life of bees takes place on the combs. Here they store food supplies (honey) and raise offspring. Only bees living in families are capable of producing wax and making honeycombs. In this case, the family must be complete. With a young uterus and numerous offspring. A bee cannot survive without a family.
The honeycombs are located in the hive parallel to each other. The distances between adjacent cells (streets) are 12.5 mm. Bees move along them.
Amazing construction site
Bees are talented architects. The honeycomb design is economical. A minimum amount of wax is spent on its construction. The cells are in the form of hexagonal prisms with an edge of 2.71 mm. It allows you to save space in the hive as much as possible.
Honeybees are guided by magnetic fields when building honeycombs. They are able to determine their strength and direction.
The honeycomb is built from wax. It is produced by the wax glands. Liquid wax is released through the smallest pores. Freezes, turning into transparent plates or scales. Bees knead them with their jaws. The building material is ready.
In spring and summer, the bee colony repairs and builds on the upper part of the honeycomb. Bees put honey in these cells. Then they are sealed with wax caps. So honey can be stored for a long time.
Order in the house
In a bee's nest, as in the house of a good hostess, there is always order. Above is a pantry for honey. The offspring is placed under it. So that it does not overheat, honeycombs with future bees are located opposite the entrance.
On hot days, the bees line up in rows near the entrance inside the hive and flap their wings together. This is how they ventilate their home. The temperature in it should be constant, + 35 ° C. Otherwise, the brood may die.
Below, in the dark part of the hive, there are always free cells. Here bees have a kind of honey factory. In the evening, they fill the cells with liquid nectar. Overnight, it dries, ferments and turns into honey. In the morning, the bees carry him upstairs.
To produce 1 kg of honey, bees need to collect nectar from 19 million flowers. Therefore, they always inform each other about the places where honey plants grow.
If the bee, returning to the hive, makes small circles, the nectar is less than 50 meters away. If further, the bee moves not only in circles, but also in a straight line, wagging its abdomen.
