That's fun stuff about comb. I only have a basic understanding of bee cell
construction, but something that always strikes me is the coincidence that bees
have 6 legs. Which is meant to come in handy when they grasp a "dancing floor"
comb and vibrate it to tell the others where food is - they grab 6 cell walls,
vibrate at a particular frequency, and the vibrations resonate off in 6
directions. If bees had, say, 4 legs they would lose the resonant effect and I
imagine their signal would be lost in the general noise of the hive.
Cotton's book! Yes, we have a copy, with the best title ever - "My Bee Book".
No pompous writing, just stuffed full of interesting facts about bees by an
enthusiast, and there were so few books about bees at the time that it became
an instant classic despite its somewhat eccentric and erratic style. If I
recall correctly, he mentions Oxford's Christ Church college had a colony in
the ceiling above the Master's room which was continuously occupied for over a
century. He helped found the country's first "bee club" at Oxford University
(now no longer extant alas).
Our bees were flying in the sun today. So still OK.
I just came across some family photos from 1995. In one, there is a meadow, and
by golly it is thigh-high grass with flowers in it. That was in Switzerland,
but it brought home how farming sure has changed within my lifetime.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [oxnatbees] Re: A bee app, and Oxfordshire bee lore
Local Time: 10 January 2018 5:44 PM
UTC Time: 10 January 2018 17:44
From: dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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](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
