(X-post with Irish List)

A few days ago looking at my recently loaded observation hive I noticed
something I had not seen before.  It is well understood that bees pull the
cappings over closed cells largely from an excess of wax around the lip of
the cell, much as drawing a curtain.  When the cell is uncapped the wax is
'rolled' back again.  Not an exact technique as winter debris indicate bees
uncapping stores, some fragments of chewed cool wax slipping past the
uncapper's mandibles.

When I loaded the hive this time I made a mistake, and like many times
before, I found that when I got it wrong was when I learned something new.
This time I misjudged the comb thickness and the top of one side of a brood
comb jammed hard up against the glass blocking 90% of free movement of bees
horizontally on that side of the frame.  It was the arch of stored honey
that was firmly touching, not brood, so  I decided to leave it and see what
happened.

Within about 2 hours the bees systematically started to dismantle the comb,
each cell being cut into and empted of honey.  Then the cell was cut down
accurately leaving the precise bee space to the glass.  What I found
interesting was each bee cutting down the cell would walk between 4-8cm away
clutching a wax fragment and attach it to the edge of another cell.  Not
drawing the cell out but adding thickness to the lip.  During this operation
the bee seemed to loose more than 50% of the wax by dropping fragments to
the floor.

I'd bet it's documented somewhere but I could not find anything very
specific.

Hope someone finds the above interesting?,  replies welcome.

cheers
Graham

Graham & Annie Law
Leicestershire
UK...

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