How honeycomb is made and harvested

Bees eat roughly 8.4 pounds of honey to build a single pound of wax comb.

stations: 4
things downstream: 11

The short version

Honey bees build honeycomb from beeswax secreted by their own bodies, forming hexagonal cells that hold brood, honey and pollen. Beekeepers keep the bees in hives with removable frames. At harvest they take frames of capped comb, and either cut the comb out or uncap it and spin the honey out in a centrifuge.

Build the wax cells

Bees make hexagonal prism cells from wax, tilted upward by 9 to 14 degrees so the honey stays put. Hexagons divide a surface into equal cells with the least perimeter, so the least wax.
Fill and cap with honey

Foragers bring nectar that is 70 to 80% water. Hive bees pass it around and fan it until it reaches roughly 18% water, then seal it into the cell. Making a full load of nectar can take visits to more than one thousand flowers.
Pull the frames

Beekeepers remove frames of capped comb from the hive, driving the bees off with smoke. Worn-out comb is melted down for wax, and good comb can be returned to the hive.
Uncap and spin

The wax cappings are cut off and the frame is spun in a centrifugal honey extractor, which flings out the honey and leaves the comb structure largely intact for reuse.

End of the lineHoneycomb Next it goes into lipstick, mascara, honey and 1 more.

Worth repeating

Bees consume about 8.4 lb (3.8 kg) of honey to secrete 1 lb (450 g) of wax.
The angle between adjacent surfaces at the closed end of each cell is 120 degrees, which minimizes surface area for a given volume.
Before movable-comb hives, collecting honey often meant destroying the whole colony.