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Honeybees use nectar from flowers to make their honey. They use long tubelike tongues to suck the nectar out of the flowers and store it in their special honey stomach. Because they also have a regular stomach to hold their food, this stomach is only for holding the nectar, and when it’s full, it weighs as much as the bee does! And to fill this special stomach, the bee will visit between 100 and 1500 flowers.

Once they’ve collected enough nectar, the bee flies back to the hive and passes it onto other worker bees who suck the nectar out through their mouths. Once the nectar is in their mouth, they chew it for 30 minutes breaking down the complex sugars into simple sugars which makes it easier for the bees to digest. Then the bees spread this chewed up nectar throughout the honeycombs where the water begins to evaporate from it. This makes the substance a lot thicker and the bees help this process of drying the nectar by fanning their wings on it. This is when it becomes honey, and once it is gooey enough, the bees wax over the honeycomb cell to preserve the honey. Then, when they’re ready, they eat the honey!