How Honey Is Made

And Why Vegans Don’t Use It

How honey is made is actually quite a long and labour-intensive process.

Honey — it’s that sweet condiment that people use instead of sugar.

Let’s start at the beginning of how honey is made. The wee bee heads out to go and get some nectar. She, yes, the bee is a she or an ‘it’ because the male or drone only mates with the Queen and then dies, poor guy, but at least he’s done his bit for the good of the hive — right?

I will explain this in layperson’s terms (or how I understand it!).

The honey bee uses her long tube-shaped tongue to extract the sugary liquid from the flower and stores it in her extra stomach. As the bee flies around, the liquid sloshes about and mixes with enzymes. This transforms it into more durable stuff for long-term storage.

As soon as the bee returns to the hive, it regurgitates the liquid into another bee’s mouth. But that’s not the end — this regurgitation or vomiting is passed from bee to bee to bee (or not to bee 🤪) until the partially digested nectar is finally deposited into a honeycomb. Now it’s still liquid, not the thick stuff you may use on your breakfast toast — so the bees fan the honeycomb with their wings to get the extra water out to evaporate it.