Peter keeps dredging up quotes, and the quotes keep showing just how many
misleading statements can make it into print when neither the author nor the
review panel (if any) recall basic principles of materials and the practical
forces that shape physical reality.

Yeah, well, if by "dredging" you mean scooping up crap from the bottom, you're wrong there. There are basically two camps: one, bees make hexagons and two) hexagons happen when bees make cylinders. Most of the latter studies (not all) have been done by people with backgrounds in engineering, whereas the former usually come from bee researchers. 

If you watch bees make comb, you see them making flat cell walls. The bases are very thin rhomboids. Pirk et al state:
"The three apparent rhomboids forming the base of each cell do not exist but arise as optical artefacts from looking through semi-transparent combs" to which I reply, balderdash. I am looking at the comb right now and I can SEE that is is made up of flat panels. 

If you look at how comb starts, it starts two ways. Bees building straight downward, creating the first set of parallel walls (joists). Then they build walls at 60 degrees which bridge the first walls. Then make the first set of cells. Or, they start with 60 degree angles, using the wooden bar for the tops of the first row of cells (every other cell, that is). This way they get more usable cells in the first row. In the combs from skeps, these two orientations were equally frequent (Thompson 1930).

Presumably, if they started with cylinders, all combs would be like the latter, not the former. For example, lay bottles on their sides. Each bottle touches the floor, and if they were to soften, the edge touching the floor would be one of the six walls. Whereas looking at comb in general, built from a wood bar, the first row usually consists of half cells. 

In our bottle experiment, that would equate to one layer of half bottles. I leave it to the engineers to work out which is the stronger base: a layer of whole bottles, or a layer of half bottles (arches). 

In the case of comb, using perpendicular joists would produce more joists per linear inch of comb than using 60/120 degree struts. Starting with a cylinder, stuck to the ceiling, is another matter, but one that I need not pursue. 

Pete

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