How do bees use cells in a bee hive?

Answer 1

The comb cells in a bee hive are of a hexagonal (six sided) shape and have three main purposes.

1) Raising of brood. The queen bee will lay an egg in an empty cell and after three days the egg will change into a small larva. The other bees in the colony will then feed the larva with pollen and seal the cell with wax. After 21 days from the time that the egg was laid, the larva will have grown into a fully formed worker bee and will eat its way out of the sealed cell having sustained itself by eating the pollen that had been stored in its cell before it was sealed.

2) The worker bees, having collected nectar from various plants, will mix it with enzymes to produce honey and that honey will be deposited in a cell and allowed to ripen. When it is ripe, the worker bees will seal the cell with wax as above.

3) Pollen collected from plants will be stored in separate cells near the brood nest and used as a 'larder' for feeding larvae as above. Cells containing pollen don't need a wax cap.