How do bees make hives?

Worker honey bees make hives to store honey and feed themselves throughout winter when they cannot go outdoors to forage for food. Honey bee hives are made of six-sided tubes, which are the shapes for optimal honey production because they require less wax and can hold more honey. read more

Worker bees and drones are the two main types of bees within the hive. Worker bees make up most of the hive, around 85 percent, and are always female. Worker bees have three main life stages: young, middle age, and older. Young worker bees are 1 to 12 days old and clean cells, nurse the brood and assist the queen. read more

Bees use different methods to build hives depending on their habitat and social structure. The most common types of beehives are underground hives, exposed hives and tree hives. Bumblebees create improvised homes in dry, dark and partly enclosed places. read more

The hexagonal shapes created during the hive-building process have been a cause for debate in the scientific world since at least the 4th century AD, when Greek mathematician Pappus of Alexandria stated that bees had "a certain geometrical forethought". read more