drone-cells are a little more than one-fourth an inch in diameter and a little more than a half-inch in depth. It is interesting to see the comb which has in it both worker- and drone-cells, and note how the transition is made; the two sizes are harmonised by a row or two of cells that are irregular. Honey is stored in both drone- and worker-cells, usually in the latter; although our bees seem to have a fondness for making drone-cells for storage. When the bees begin to cap a cell, they commence at the outside and work toward the centre. There is not a prettier piece of engineering anywhere than the cap of a honey-cell, with six little girders extending from the angles of the cell and holding the flat cap at the centre. Honey is capped with wax, but brood is capped with a mixture of wax and pollen, which admits air. Though the cell-walls may be thinner than .0018 of an inch, comb is wonderfully strong, and may weigh one-twentieth or less than the weight of the honey stored within it.
An interesting fact about the manufacture of comb is that no one bee constructs a cell and no one bosses the job. A bee will come along with a little wax and put it in place at the side of a cell, and then will run off and do something else; another bee passing sees this bit of unfinished work, gives it a few pinches and polishes it a little, and then does something else. Several bees may thus lend a mandible before the cell is perfected. Any bit of comb-building seems to be the result of a consensus of public opinion and not of individual skill
