How do bees make honey?

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Bees start making honey, which is their food, by visiting flowers. They collect a sugary juice called nectar from the blossom by sucking it out with their tongues. They store it in what's called their honey stomach, which is different from their food stomach. When they have a full load, they fly back to the hive. read more

To make honey, two things happen: Enzymes that bees produce turn the sucrose (a disaccharide) into glucose and fructose (monosaccharides). See How Food Works for a discussion of food enzymes and saccharides. read more

While most foraging bees are dedicated to collecting nectar for the production of honey, about 15 to 30 percent of the foragers are collecting pollen on their flights out from the hive. The pollen is used to make beebread, the bees' main source of dietary protein. read more