How Bees Make Honey

Honeybees are small, but they work very hard. A worker bee flies from flower to flower all day. It drinks the sweet juice from the flowers with its long tongue. This sweet juice is called nectar, and the bee keeps it in a special stomach.

Back at the hive, the bee gives the nectar to other bees. They pass it from mouth to mouth and add a little something from their bodies. Then they put the nectar into small wax rooms. The bees move their wings fast to dry it, and slowly the nectar becomes thick honey.

When the honey is ready, the bees close each little room with a soft wax lid. The honey is now food for the whole hive in the cold winter. One small bee makes only a tiny drop in its life, so the bees must work together to fill the hive.