What do bees make?

Bees make honey from flower nectar.

Worker honey bees collect nectar with their long, tube-like tongues and carry it back to the hive in a special internal storage sac often called a honey stomach. There, the nectar is passed among worker bees. Enzymes they add begin breaking its complex sugars into simpler sugars such as glucose and fructose.

The mixture is initially very watery, so bees fan their wings to help evaporate moisture from it. When the honey has thickened and contains relatively little water, workers place it in wax comb cells and seal those cells with beeswax. The colony stores honey as an energy-rich food supply, especially for periods when flowers are scarce.

Honey is different from pollen, which bees collect mainly as a protein source and combine with nectar to make bee bread. Beeswax is another product made by bees, but it comes from wax-producing glands rather than directly from flower nectar. Also, not every bee species makes large stores of honey: honey bees are the best-known honey-producing bees.