I know bees take nectar and pollen etc. But how do they make the actual comb part. You see people pressing spoons against them and the honey pours out. Is that a different part of the process? How do bees know to make the shape like that? Rather, why do they make the combs in that shape?
In: Engineering
They secrete a wax-like substance from their abdomen which they then chew a bit and combine with honey to make the honeycomb material. They then manually construct the honey combs.
They are essentially hard-wired to build it in a hexagonal shape, as that shape is the most efficient shape for packing. They don’t “know” this, of course, but there is evolutionary pressure and reward for building more efficient shapes, which would leave to the evolution of creatures that will instinctively build that shape.
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