I suggest that everyone just find a few chunks of natural comb in the process of being built, such as the pieces bees build in packages or between widely spaced combs in a hive, or in a natural swarm, and sit down in a well-lit spot with whatever eye wear that is needed to see clearly, and ponder what is observed. One chunk may not be enough as the cells under construction vary in completeness and orientation along the edge and around the curve of the comb edge. Having several combs allows for verification of the observations made on any one cell by comparing to a comparable on another comb. I think that after careful observation of many incomplete cells, the conclusions are quite obvious, although the exact mechanisms remain somewhat of a mystery. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html