Why do honeybees make honey – do they eat it?

Honeybees obtain all the materials required for their growth and sustenance from just three substances – nectar, pollen and water.

Worker bees collect nectar from a variety of flowers and convert this mixture of raw sugars into a mixture of more simple sugars, glucose and fructose, using an enzyme found in their guts.

Further processes reduce the water content and the finished honey is sealed into storage cells.

This stored honey provides a good source that enables the colony to survive through the winter months when flowers are mostly absent and it is too cold for worker bees to forage for nectar.