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No honey without a temperature jump.

Are bees gifted builders? or do they use similar processes as us?Honey bees build their honeycomb with such an exact geometry that it was said they had an amazing mathematical ability. Puzzling, but it remained a mystery as to how the precise geometry of the cells came about. In 2004, a researcher based in Wurzburg discovered the secret of the honeycomb.
Bees are not genial architects, but do use for their construction a genial building material, their own wax. They produce this from special glands located at the rear of their body. The wax is sweated out of the glands as thin plates. Each wax plate weighs around 0.8 Milligram so that for a Kilogram of bees wax around 1.25 million plates are required. In addition, wax is only produced in the early part of the year, from April to July when a good nectar supply is available. Within a week during this time period, multiple honeycombs can be built. The honeycombs of the bees are perfectly identical six sided cells. Here they store their food, honey or pollen and bring up their young. The cell walls are only 70 thousandths of a millimetre thick.
During the research of this building performance, knowledge of the main sense organs of the bees has come to light. It was found that the feelers of the bee are essential measuring instruments with which the exact thickness of the cell walls is found.
A relatively new discovery is that the bees do not build the comb in a six sided form directly. Instead they use their own bodies as a template for the normal cells. These cells are at first round. Only due to the heating of the wax to almost 40°C is the six sided form produced. The reason is the "jump temperature" of beeswax, as it is heated from 25°C to 40°C, causing the molecular arrangement to change from crystalline to amorphous. During this change the physical effects of the surface tension of fluids play an essential roll. These cause the boundary surfaces to be an absolute flat structure with a constant wall thickness.
This phenomenon can be easily simulated when round cylinders of thin wax are brought in contact with each other and warmed to a precise temperature. Without any other action, a regular six-sided structure, as found in the honeycomb is produced. Honey bees make use of basic physical principles…the same as Huber.
In the processes involving crystallisations, a very similar process takes place to form the crystals from the solution in the right size and shape. The process requires precise and responsive temperature control. Using Huber systems to provide close process temperature control removes the unpredictability associated with poor temperature control as the thermal load changes during the formation of the crystals.