Beekeeping & Gravitational Winds: Examining Feral Comb Alignment

[Ian Rumsey]

I am a beekeeper and study feral colonies of bees.
The natural comb that they build orientates itself in an East-West alignment.
The comb is aerodynamically shaped, the leading edge is vertical facing East and the trailing edge is angled at about 45 degrees and where it joins the roof there is a small indentation which may be caused by a vortex.
Such a shape would be ideal in water at say 10mph or air at 100 mph or something less dense at 1000 mph.
Would this resistance be caused by cutting the Earth's magnetic field at right angles, or is there a force produced by rotating objects like a gravitational wind being generated as magnetic fields are produced by rotating magnets.
Bees may have an awareness of something beyond our perception.
Gyroscopes and this Wind may have some connection.
Any advice or help would be appreciated.
I have a photo of this type of comb which has been scanned so I can send it to anybody that might be interested.

 

[brewnog]

My initial thoughts are as yours, - magnetic fields (a lot of rocks are seen to have macroscopic east-west grain patterns in them from alignment when they cooled) and wind, - the coriolis effect may be relevant here, - I believe British prevailing winds cause many coastal plants to orientate themselves such. My only other thought would be that the effect of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west could be a factor? Would definitely like to see the photo, can you post it somewhere?

Cheers

 

[enigma]

Might another option be for the bees' mapping ability? If they need to know where to go to get to the best flowers, they'd need to orient themselves properly.

I also think this topic would be better suited to biology, so I'm going to move it there.

 

[Ian Rumsey]

There is a copy of this photo on http://www.bee-l.com/biobeefiles/ian/hp.htm
The subject itself seems to cover a wide range of options and I find it difficult to find the correct slot.
Magnetic fields horizontally applied do not appear to affect the orientation, but vertical magnetic fields change the direction through 90 degrees.
Entomologists and Engineers see things differently.
I only wished for a aerodynamic engineer to comment on the shape of the comb regarding its aerodynamic properties.