Honeybee adaptability to square comb foundation

Abstract

Abstract In beekeeping, hexagonal comb foundation sheets made of beeswax are provided to bees beforehand to encourage them to build regular honeycomb cells. The practice leverages the bee instinct to construct cells of a specific size—a regular hexagon roughly the size of a bee head—when building their nests. However, it remains unclear how honeybees behave when presented with foundation sheets that deviate from their instinctively preferred shapes and sizes . In this study, we investigated the ability of bees to adapt to severe structural disturbances in cell geometry. To this end, foundation sheets composed of square indentations were provided to honeybees and their subsequent nest-building activities were observed periodically. Notably, honeybees keenly perceived the size and arrangement of the squares carved into the comb foundation and constructed different types of combs depending on the differences. The findings enhance our understanding of the mechanisms via which highly ordered hexagon honeycombs are constructed.