A full-sized colony at the height of the growing season contains an average of 60,000 individual bees. Some well-managed hives in bee yards contain up to 80,000 individual bees. The central structure of the colony is the wax comb . It is made up of six-sided, white wax chambers or cells . The cells vary in size according to the purpose.
Smaller chambers are for raising female worker bees, larger ones are for raising male drones.
Queen chambers are the largest. The comb is made of beeswax , a substance secreted from worker bee abdominal glands. The wax is secreted as tiny flakes, which are then chewed and molded into cells. Other construction in and around the hive is done with propolis , a sticky substance bees manufacture from tree and plant resin. The comb contains the stored honey and is home for the immature bees.