Scientific explanation of honeycomb shape
Dear Paul,
I don't know if this would be of interest but I have wondered if bees
intentionally make hexagonal shapes so I asked a phd student who has just
done a thesis on bubbles, and she said:
"With bubbles, those corners that you're referring to are called "Plateau
borders", after Joseph Plateau. Incidentally, you will find that the where
three films meet (the Plateau borders), those films will each be separated
by 120 degrees. Four such borders will then meet at a Plateau vertex at an
angle of 109.47 (i.e. arccos(-1/3)). This minimises the interfacial area
and improves mechanical stability, and is the result of the
inwardly-direction surface tension force.
At least, this behaviour holds if you have a bunch of bubbles that are not
constrained by a container, which obviously will affect the angles towards
the edges. Actually, I went to a talk a couple of years ago where they had
3D printed a transparent cell with the right angles such that they could
produce a perfect emulsion without edge effects...
By the way...if you look at those angles, you might notice that they are
describing hexagonal prisms...
In terms of bees, not that it is my specialty, I believe that it is to do
with storing the largest volume of honey with the smallest volume of wax.
Of course, a circle has the largest area-to-volume ratio, but packing
circles together leaves little triangles of wasted space between them. So,
if you swap to something with straight sides that can be packed together
without wasted space, you get triangles, squares and hexagons. Of them,
the hexagon gives you the most volume for the least amount of wax.
Although, my brief research in honeycombs would suggest that they actually
do built a bunch of tubes with circular cross sections that then get pulled
into hexagons as the hot wax softens (yay, surface tension!)
Maybe this little explanation <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pypd_yKGYpA>
will be of interest..."
Maybe houses could be built in hexagonal shapes, and freezer containers,
and honey jars.
Happy New Year!
Mary
On 9 January 2018 at 13:47, Paul Honigmann <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hi all,
OxNatBees has been contacted by the creators of an app called Bee.Watch
<http://www.bee.watch> which offers various functions for beekeepers. The
creators (who are in Cholsey, south Oxfordshire) would like to give a
presentation about it at one of our meetings, which should not be a
problem, but the ensuing conversation threw up some interesting facts,
particularly for Oxfordshire beekeepers:
*"You may be interested to know that although the sheer weight of
pesticides applied in the UK has declined over the past 25 years, the area
sprayed has increased by 78%. This is mainly because more farmers are
spraying theirs farms more than 4 times a year."*
There's also a thread on beekeepingforum.co.uk
<https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=41319> where people
are discussing this app. Interesting points from there:
[The creators posted:] *"2016 we managed 140 lb honey, 2017 we eliminated
wax moth and dramaticslly reduced varroa and produced 850lb but lost 7 big
colonies overnight. The CEH [Centre for Ecology & Hydrology] in Wallingford
lost all 10 of their hives in 2016/17 so it looks like we are in a hot spot
for problems." ... " the National Bee Unit is heavily under funded, we have
sent dead bee samples off 3 separate times for testing and have yet to be
told why they died. One sample they said they had lost and the other they
made 2 judgements based on a photograph and have yet to test chemically for
pesticides. In summary, the NBU should be receiving a lot more funding for
the great work they do."*
[Posted by someone called Brian Bush, located in Bucks:]
*"Swarm collection in Oxfordshire as a whole has been pretty hopeless over
the past few years. In neighbouring counties and associations, such as
mine, we have good swarm notification and collection procedures working
alongside the BBKA website model. It only takes a few hours by an
individual to organise a mailshot to all local and parish councils. A
mailshot and compilation of a list of beekeeper collectors and a tolerant
wife to answer the phone when you are unavailable. I know because I do it
every year.*
* In neighbouring associations the swarm line phone is passed around on a
weekly basis to reduce the load on any one person. *
* In Oxfordshire, however, they seem to have a ramshackle system, that
no-one takes responsibility for and in busy years we receive calls from 30
miles away.*
* The death of bees in South Oxfordshire and North Berkshire has been an
issue for several years. Outbreaks of EFB and AFB are common, I have not
however, seen the figures fro 2017. There is a very possible reason for bee
ill-health in this area. It is home to a large honey importation company.
At one time every garden and allotment in a wide area recycled the large
plastic barrels as water buts. I know that extreme and rigorous practices
are now in place to ensure that these barrels have no traces of honey in
them. Foul brood however became established in this area some years ago and
the Bee Inspectorate have made great strides in its control and
elimination. I agree, as I have stated before on this forum, that all hives
should be registered but I think the best course Jowlpost could take would
be to work within his local association and improve their practices and
procedures within the BBKA framework. SWMBO and I spend a great deal of
time dispatching swarm collectors to villages and towns on the Oxfordshire
side of the boundary. We don't like having to refuse calls from as far away
as Witney or Banbury for reasons of distance. We refuse calls from the
Wallingford/Didcot area because of the Fouls Brood reports."*
About the app itself: it is intended to inform us when spraying occurs
near us, but there is already an initiative for this called
BeeConnected.org.uk which never seems to alert any beekeepers, because
farmers simply aren't incentivised to enter data when they spray. It offers
some record keeping functions intended for conventional beeks, and it
attempts to help link up swarm sightings with collectors.
Paul
