The geometry of Hexagonal shape uses the least amount of material to hold the
most weight. Squares and triangles have angles that would be difficult to
access. That’s my understanding anyway.
From: Mary Baker
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 2:05 PM
To: oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [oxnatbees] Re: A bee app, and Oxfordshire bee lore
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 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 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 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
