Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CIV · Topic 16: Wasps and bees
104. The honey-comb
Goal: Your child can describe the six-sided cells of honey-comb and explain why that shape saves room and wax.
You'll need
- A piece of comb honey (from a store, farmers' market or beekeeper)
- A plate and a knife
- Pennies or other round counters
- A hexagonal pencil
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
Comstock's story of honey-comb, which mathematicians have long admired: how the six-sided cells meet back to back in a double row, how the bottom of each cell is a little three-sided pyramid, and how the comb is the strongest and thriftiest way to store a liquid. Then Lesson CIV's leading thought, list of materials and nine questions.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Any time of year, at the kitchen table. Comstock's materials: "A section filled with honey and also a bit of empty comb and a bit of commercial foundation comb which may be obtained in any apiary." Comb honey alone is enough.
Keep the big idea in mind
Comstock's "leading thought" is the one idea the lesson is meant to lead to. Read it to yourself now, and save it to share at the end, after your child has looked and answered:
The cells of honey-comb are six-sided and in double rows and are very perfectly arranged for the storing of honey, so as to save room.
Look at the cells
Look at a bit of empty honey-comb; what is the shape of the cell as you look down into it?
What is the shape of the bottom of the cell?
Count the sides of one cell with a toothpick, and count how many cells touch it.
Why six sides?
Lay pennies in rows, touching. Point to the little gaps between them: wasted space. Now look at the end of the hexagonal pencil, and at the comb again: six-sided shapes fit with no gaps at all.
Explain how honey-comb economizes space as storage for honey, and why an economy of space is of use to bees in the wild state.
Honey in the comb
Observe honey-comb containing honey; how is the honey retained in the cells?
In the hive is the honey-comb placed so that the length of the cells are horizontal or up and down?
Then cut a small piece and have a taste.
Nature notebook
Draw a patch of seven cells: one in the middle and six around it. Beside it, draw circles in rows with the gaps shaded. Read the leading thought aloud and write it under your drawing in your child's own words.
Tip
Never give honey to a baby under one year old.
Answers to the book's problems
The cells are six-sided (hexagons); six-sided cells fit together with no gaps, so no space and no wax is wasted. Each cell's bottom is a shallow three-sided pyramid that fits against the bottoms of three cells on the other side of the comb. In the hive the cells lie nearly flat (horizontal), tipped up a little at the open end, and the honey is held in by surface stickiness and then sealed with wax caps.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.