How to make Honey
Honey is one of nature's sweet gifts. To enjoy your own honey, simply let the bees do most of the work. Honeybees gather nectar from a variety of flowers and place it into the hive's honeycomb cells. The bees then mix the nectar with enzymes in a special pouch in their bodies, beginning the transformation of nectar into honey. Then these hardy workers evaporate a lot of the nectar's water to thicken the liquid. When the honey is ready, the bees create a cap of beeswax on top of each cell. With most of the work complete, all you have to do is remove and extract the honey to enjoy its natural goodness.
How honey is made
Made Naturally by Nature
From Bee
Honey starts as flower nectar collected by bees, which gets broken down into simple sugars stored inside the honeycomb. The design of the honeycomb and constant fanning of the bees' wings causes evaporation, creating sweet liquid honey. Honey's color and flavor varies based on the nectar collected by the bees. For example, honey made from orange blossom nectar might be light in color, whereas honey from avocado or wildflowers might have a dark amber color.
To Hive
On average, a hive will produce about 65 pounds of surplus honey each year2. Beekeepers harvest it by collecting the honeycomb frames and scraping off the wax cap that bees make to seal off honey in each cell. Once the caps are removed, the frames are placed in an extractor, a centrifuge that spins the frames, forcing honey out of the comb.
To Home
After the honey is extracted, it’s strained to remove any remaining wax and other particles. Some beekeepers and bottlers might heat the honey to make this process easier, but that doesn't alter the liquid's natural composition.
After straining, it's time to bottle, label and bring it to you. It doesn't matter if the container is glass or plastic, or if the honey is purchased at the grocery store or farmers’ market. If the ingredient label says “pure honey,” nothing was added from bee to hive to bottle.
Source: 2. Abbott, Charles Nash (1881), British Bee Journal & Bee-keepers Adviser, Volume 31.