Honey is sweet, thick and delicious. But did you know that bees work very hard to make it? A honeybee family lives together in a hive. In one hive, there can be thousands of bees.
Making honey starts with flowers. Worker bees fly from flower to flower and drink a sweet liquid called nectar. They use their long tongues to do this. The bees keep the nectar in a special stomach and carry it back to the hive.
Inside the hive, the bees pass the nectar from one bee to another. Then they put it into small cells made of wax. The nectar is very watery, so the bees move their wings fast to dry it. Slowly, the nectar becomes thick honey. Finally, the bees close each cell with a little wax.
Why do bees make honey? It is their food. In winter, there are not many flowers, so the bees eat the honey they saved. People enjoy honey too, but it is really the bees' food for the cold months.