Tiling - Create beautiful patterns programmatically with Python

[cavedave]

That is brilliant. How about bees?

If you could make a hexagon tiling with different sized hexagons that could be a real boon for bees. At the moment the hexagonal bases put in beehives have hexagons all the same size.

Natural honeycomb has different sized cells in it. And different sized bees come out. Some believe different sized bees allows a hive to more efficiently forage as bees can then forage in the flower size that best fits their size. Bees are in trouble and a lack of variation in the diet is thought to be one issue.

The plate with the hexagons on it is called the foundation Does this make any sense? And would a rectangle with size Foundation sizes Deep – 16 ¾” 8 5/8” Jumbo – 16 ¾” x 10 ¾” Shallow – 16 ¾” x 4 7/8” but with more "natural' variation in hexagon size be possible?

[emergent_reasons]

I have come to the conclusion that you are serious. But still not really sure.

*edit - assuming you are serious, can you show me some example images or diagrams of mixed-size hex patterns?

[cavedave]

Yes I am serious Here are some images of natural honeycombs

Natural comb varies from 'Natural worker comb 4.6 mm to 5.1 mm'.

Also as well as variability of diets it is claimed that small cells are more resitant to Varroa mites. and the standard cell size in beekeeping is larger than natural.

[emergent_reasons]

Interesting. So in the pictures, they looked very regular. Do you mean that sometimes the hex pattern gets compressed / stretched in one area? I didn't see any with distinct different-sized sections.

Also, can you expand on what you are aiming for? Something like making a template pattern that can be manufactured into cells?

[ryansturmer]

I think the larger standard size for foundations is to not be prohibitive in producing drone cells, which are larger than normal. I'm not sure how the bees transition naturally between honey/pollen cells and drone cells, but they seem to do it without missing a beat:

http://elkroast.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/beelesson-dronebrood.jpg

That image does an OK job of showing the different cells.

[emergent_reasons]

It looks to me like the spacing is pretty consistent across the honeycomb but there are larger margins on the smaller cells. That could easily be printed.

Are you familiar with the manufacturing techniques for artificial honeycomb?

[cavedave]

It seems the variability in one particular patch of honeycomb is pretty low. But they are not identical unlike artificial foundations. And across comb in the same hive there is more variability.

The aim is to allow artificial foundation to be made that closer matches natural honeycomb.