>Bees do not build hexagonal ("toth structure") cells.  They build cylinders, which then deform under pressure into the "toth" crystalline structure we know as a bee cell, just as adjacent soap bubbles blown between two sheets of glass will deform.
....
>One of the surprising basic things that the small-cell acolytes are not
taught is how comb actually gets built.
....
>This misinformation has sadly made its way into at least one recently-published but obscure book,
stating "bees...use their mandibles (mouth parts) to shape the wax into perfect hexagons". (See
http://www.dheaf.plus.com/warrebeekeeping/idiot.pdf )

Yes, this is what we stated in our book...and I have yet to be convinced that this is incorrect (but I'm certainly open to the possibility).

I understand the 'soap bubble' theory...read about it in Tautz's book...but there is one thing that I don't understand....explain paper wasps.

As far as my own senses/experience can tell me without doing direct experiments (which I have not done), the pulp that paper wasps build their hexagonal combs out of is not subject to "melting" by heat, and that even as a slurry, pulp or mud doesn't have too much of this "soapy" characteristic.

Occam's razor isn't always the proper tool...but the idea that bees and wasps would both make hexagonal cells, but would form the hexagons using different techniques seems less likely than likely, at least to me.  Perhaps the hexagon is produced by the bees, and the 3 lozenge shaped plates at the bottom (which are not apparant in paper wasp cells) are produced by heat?

Is there something I'm missing?  I know what I'm posting is nothing more than a "thought experiment", but does anyone have any insight?  I've been asking this question and making this point for years, and never had a good answer....if I had had a good answer 4 years ago, I might have written something different.

We recommended Tautz's book (with some caveats) in a list of suggested references...in the end, we had no room for it, so in cooperation with our publisher, we made it available as a .pdf:
http://beeuntoothers.com/AppendixBee.pdf

>...It is the inevitable result of the self-described philosophy of "no scientists, just really good beekeepers" (formerly "no scientists, just good beekeepers").  

It sounds like you are quoting Brendhan Horne from Florida.  He is the only one that I know of that has ever described anything that way.  I don't know Brendhan terribly well, but I think I know him well enough to know that being quoted on Bee-L will make his day...I'll have to shoot him an email.

Ramona and I did speak at a conference he ran, using that slogan...but like most events we are asked to speak at, we had no part of the organizing, planning, or the slogan.  We were there speaking with Dee, Michael Bush, Sam Comfort, along with a number of other beekeepers.

Anyone that has read our book, heard us speak, or even read the posts on Bee-l over the last several years can tell that I have a deep respect for good science...and disdain for the other kind.

deknow

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