Honeycomb

Honeycomb is the mass of hexagonal wax cells that honey bees build in their nests to hold their brood and their stores of honey and pollen. As a food, comb honey is sold with the honey still sealed inside its beeswax cells, and the wax can be eaten together with the honey. Pieces of comb are also packed in jars and covered with liquid honey. Fresh new comb is sometimes spread on bread rather than used in cooking or as a sweetener, while beekeepers who want only the honey uncap the cells and spin the comb in a centrifugal extractor, which leaves the comb mostly intact so the bees can refill it. Honey bees use a good deal of honey to secrete a small amount of wax, which is one reason keepers often return worn wax to the hive. The regular hexagonal shape is also known for packing equal cells with the least perimeter, a result called the honeycomb theorem.