How is honey made?

Honey is produced by honeybees through a multi-step natural process. Forager bees collect sweet nectar from flowering plants using their long proboscis and store it in a specialized “honey stomach.” Enzymes inside the stomach break complex nectar sugars down into simple glucose and fructose.

Upon returning to the hive, forager bees pass the regurgitated nectar to worker bees, who deposit it into wax honeycomb cells. Worker bees fan their wings over the cells to evaporate water content down to below 18 percent. Once the liquid thickens into honey, bees seal the cell with fresh beeswax for storage.