"Each obtuse angle of the lozenges or rhombs forms an angle of about 110 degrees, and each acute one, an angle of about 70 degrees. Mr. Maraldi found by mensuration that the angles of these rhombs, which compose the base of a cell, amounted to 109 degrees and 28 seconds, and 70 degrees and 32 seconds: and the famous mathematician Koenig, pupil of the celebrated Bernoulli, having been employed for that purpose by M. Reaumur, has clearly shown, by the method of infinitesimals, that the quantity of these angles, using the least possible wax, in the cell of the same capacity, should contain 109 degrees and 26 seconds, and 70 degrees and 34 seconds. This was confirmed by the celebrated Mr. Mac Laurin, who very justly observes, that Bees do truly construct their cells of the best figure, and with the utmost mathematical exactness.
"The construction of several combs is generally going on at the same time. No sooner is the foundation of one laid, with a few rows of cells attached to it, than a second and a third are founded on each side, parallel to the first, and so on, (if the season give encouragement to the operations of the Bees,) till the hive is filled with their works; the first constructed comb or combs being always in the most advanced state, and therefore the first to be completed.
"The design of every comb is sketched out, and the first rudiments are laid by one single Bee. This founder-Bee forms a block, out of a rough mass of wax, drawn partly from its own resources, but principally from those of other Bees, which furnish materials, in quick succession, from the receptacles under their bellies, taking out the plates of wax with their hind feet, and carrying them to their mouths with their fore feet, where the wax is moistened and masticated, till it becomes soft and ductile.
Thus filter'd through yon flutterer's folded mail,
Clings the cool'd wax, and hardens to a scale;
Swift, at the well-known call, the ready train
(For not a buz boon nature breathes in vain)
Spring to each falling flake, and bear along
Their glossy burdens to the builder throng.
Evans.
"The architect-in-chief, who lays, as it were, the first stone of this and each successive edifice, determines the relative position of the combs, and their distances from each other: these foundations serve as guides for the ulterior labours of the wax-working Bees, and of those which sculpture the cells, giving them the advantage of the margin and angles already formed.
"The expedients resorted to by that ingenious naturalist, Huber, unfolded the whole process. He saw each Bee extract with its hind feet one of the plates of wax from under the scales where they were lodged, and carrying it to the mouth in a vertical position, turn it round, so that every part of its border was made to pass in succession, under the cutting edge of the jaws; it was thus soon divided into very small fragments; and a frothy liquor was poured upon it from the tongue, so as to form a perfectly plastic mass. This liquor gave the wax a whiteness and opacity which it did not possess originally, and at the same time renders it tenacious and ductile. The issuing of this masticated mass from the mouth was, no doubt, what misled Reaumur, and caused him to regard wax as nothing more than digested pollen.
"The mass of wax, prepared by the assistants, is applied by the architect-Bee to the roof or bottom of the hive, as the case may be; and thus a block is raised of a semi-lenticular shape, thick at top and tapering towards the edges. When of a sufficient size, a cell is sculptured on one side of it, by the wax-working Bees, who relieve one another in succession, sometimes to the number of twenty, before the cell is completely fashioned. At the back and on each side of this first cell, two others are sketched out and excavated. By this proceeding the foundations of two cells are laid, the line betwixt them corresponding with the centre of the opposite cell. As the combs extend, the first excavations are rendered deeper and broader; and when a pyramidal base is finished, the Bees build up walls from its edges, so as to complete what may be called the prismatic part of the cell. Every succeeding row of cells is formed by precisely similar steps, until there is a sufficient scope for the simultaneous employment of many workers.
These, with sharp sickle, or with sharper tooth,
Pare each excrescence and each angle smooth,
Till now, in finish'd pride, two radiant rows
Of snow-white cells, one mutual base disclose.
Six shining panels gird each polish'd round,
The door's fine rim, with waxen fillet hound,
While walls so thin, with sister-walls comhin'd,
Weak in themselves, a sure dependence find.
Evans.