REAL natural comb.....

[BjornBee]

This is the bottom of a top (cover) from a five frame nuc. Originally, I had a two inch spacer, that the bees found worthy of filling in with honey. (darker wax areas) So I place an empty medium box and thought they would clean out the honey and store it below. But the bees just found that making brood comb was to their liking (This is the new lighter comb).

I had an entire deep 10 frame box filled in last year that I wished I had taken a photo of. But this also works to show the wild patterns and design feature of what real natural comb is, when the bees are not given a pattern to follow, whether that be unnatural large cell, or equally unnatural smallcell.

I believe bee make comb based on many secondary issues such as air flow, logistics, and other concerns. And nothing that beekeeper provide comes close to what bee construct in nature.

Thought this would be of interest to those never seeing what bees actually do without ANY beekeeper intervention concerning giving them a pattern to follow.

[KQ6AR]

Thanks, nice photo.

Dan

[Moonshae]

Most of the cutouts I've done, the comb was so perfect it's amazing...perfectly parallel combs along the whole length of the cavity, top to bottom. Usually at a 45 degree angle to the cavity, though, not perpendicular like we do with our frames.

[HAB]

Wild and Crazy kinda Guy..uh Bees.

[Gene Weitzel]

Most of the cutouts I've done, the comb was so perfect it's amazing...perfectly parallel combs along the whole length of the cavity, top to bottom. Usually at a 45 degree angle to the cavity, though, not perpendicular like we do with our frames.

In my cutouts I have found that a lot depends on the shape and size of the cavity. When they build between ceiling/floor joists, the comb is nearly always perpendicular to the joists and almost perfectly mimics what a beekeeper gets in a TBH (on extremely large colonies they will often gradually curve the combs at the back and switch them to longer combs parallel to the joists). When they build in walls between studs about 50% of the time they build narrow long combs attached to the top plate and more or less parallel to the studs and 50% of the time they are large sheets built parallel to the wall covering. Most the time, when they are in strange places, anything goes and the comb resembles the photo posted by Bjornbee. The few open air hives I have come across have been amazingly symmetrical with the combs nearly perfectly parallel to each other and the whole nest resembles a sphere when viewed from a distance.