The idea of using plastic materials in hives for honey storage and brood rearing may sound like a modern concept, but it is in fact quite an old one. This article tells the intriguing story of beekeepers' attempts to find a durable, tough and sterilizable substitute for beeswax. Although the search has been going on actively for a hundred years, the final solution has still not been found—largely because of the high cost of providing anything that the bees will accept. The bees may yet defeat the beekeeper in the battle for factory farming.