Measuring With Body Parts

Here I am pulling two Top Bars apart and causing a little chaos. As always, click for a much larger picture of bees holding on to each other in a chain.

Festooning is what it is called when bees hang together in a chain. These bees might be "measuring" out the top bar or could be doing something else, the jury is still out about why they do it, but I think it's pretty cool. They do this before they begin to build their comb. It's hard to describe if you've never seen this, but the bees hold on to each other in little chains and don't let go

even if you stretch them a ways out. They don't want to lose their place I guess. I don't know if bees in Langstroth hives do this.

Another thing that I have observed that my bees do in Top Bar Hives is that they build a huge variety of cell sizes.

Not being a scientist I can only guess what this is about, but I bet the bees know exactly what it is about and I have decided to just trust them when it comes to cell size.

 

They don't have that kind of freedom when they are working in a hive with prestamped foundation. They must create the cell sizes that are stamped into the plastic or wax. I wonder what that is like for them?
I found this page on Bush Farm's web site helpful for his experience with natural frameless comb.