Facts About Honeybee Combs

Honey is produced by worker bees who gather pollen and return it to the honeycomb, placing it in its cells, allowing it it process into raw honey. The honeycomb is much more than just a place where honey comes from. It is a hub of activity where several generations of bees co-exist and work with the queen for their survival.

  1. Little Workers

    • It is interesting to see the honeycomb as the lifelong home and workplace of the honeybee. Bee larvae is deposited there, bees are born within the honeycomb, and most become workers that build and maintain the honeycomb while creating honey within it. It is a self-contained city with tasks and a clearly defined hierarchy: the large queen bee, who is constantly fertilized and reproduces; the female non-reproducing worker bee; and the male drone bee, who has the singular role of fertilizing the queen.

    Made From

    • The honeycomb is made of beeswax. The wax comes from the underbelly of the worker bees. When the young bee is around two weeks old it develops a waxy substance on its glands. The bee spends a great deal of time ingesting this substance and spits it back out with saliva to form the hardened cells of the comb. This process is ongoing, as some comb cells are used for growing bees and some house the queen. It is the job of each cycle of new worker bees to complete this process, repairing and making the honeycomb stronger and larger.

    Structure

    • The honeycomb is two-sided and covered with cell panels on each side. One of the mysteries of the honeycomb is that each cell is essentially perfect and uniform with the others in each section. The bees manage to create cell clusters for food, general bee population and for eggs in the "nursery" area called the brood comb.

    Honey Production

    • Beekeepers regularly remove and drain the honey from the honeycomb. On occasion you will see a piece of honeycomb in a jar of raw or unprocessed honey. This honeycomb acts as a preservative and keeps the honey fresh. Once a comb is drained it must be quickly returned to the colony. This allows the beekeeper to have more honey production because the workers will not be triggered to build a new colony. They instantly return to honey making.