The Marvelous Architecture of Honeybees

On a scorching summer day near Boulder Creek, Colorado, a flurry of European honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) diligently buzz around their hive community, embarking on missions for water, nectar, and pollen. Inside the hives, intricate walls of hexagonal honeycomb are shaping up, a testament to the bees' collective problem-solving prowess.

Orit Peleg, an associate professor in CU Boulder’s Computer Science Department, marvels at this process, stating, "Building a hive is a beautiful example of honeybees solving a problem collectively. Each bee contributes its bit of wax, but we still know very little about how they coordinate these decisions."

Groundbreaking Research Insights

In an eye-opening study published in PLOS Biology, Peleg’s research team teamed up with Francisco López Jiménez of CU's Aerospace Engineering Department to reveal the fascinating techniques honeybees employ to construct their hives, even in seemingly unsuitable locations. Their research not only sheds light on bee behavior but also inspires potential innovations in bio-inspired architecture and 3D printing.

Understanding How Bees Build

Honeybees are versatile builders, capable of constructing nests in a myriad of locations—from artificial hives to natural hollows in trees. Once a colony decides on a new home, they meticulously create their hive using honeycomb, a waxy framework of hexagonal cells.

This construction venture is resource-intensive, beginning with the collection of nectar during warmer months. To produce honey, bees engage in approximately 2 million flower visits to gather enough nectar for just one pound of honey. Amazingly, each bee consumes about 8 ounces of honey to produce a mere ounce of the wax needed for more honeycomb.

In situations with uneven surfaces, the challenge amplifies, leading to increased resource expenditure and potentially less efficient comb structures. Thus, bees strive for efficiency, aiming to create nearly perfect hexagonal cells that maximize storage while minimizing wax use.

Navigating Irregular Surfaces

For the new study, lead researcher Golnar Gharooni Fard sought to unravel the decision-making processes of bees as they tackle structural challenges. "We aimed to understand the rules of decision-making in a distributed colony," Fard explained.

To explore this, the researchers crafted 3D printed panels with shallow hexagonal patterns of varying sizes. These foundations were then placed in the hives, allowing bees to adapt their construction strategies. The results were illuminating—bees employed methods such as merging cells, angling them, or layering to make functional honeycomb.

Describing this experimentation as akin to solving puzzles, López Jiménez remarked, "If they are building honeycomb on a tree branch that isn't perfectly flat, they must figure it out." Their ongoing research aims to further unravel why bees choose specific building strategies across various environments.

Implications for Innovation

The study's findings hold significant potential for real-world applications. The efficiencies present in honeycomb construction could inspire lightweight designs in aerospace engineering, while the bees’ collaborative labor organization offers intriguing lessons in efficiency.

López Jiménez likened honeycomb building to a form of 3D printing, where each bee plays its part, systematically adding wax to the larger structure. "How do they organize themselves, and can we learn from their methods?" he pondered.