How do we know?
↻ One of the pages with a moving picture
Beekeepers check how much water is in the honey.
- A bee sips flower nectar and stores it in its honey stomach. Then it flies home.
- House bees work the nectar for about 20 minutes, adding enzymes, then put it in a cell.
- Bees fan their wings to dry it. Nectar can be 80% water; honey is only about 18%.
- When it’s ready, bees seal each cell with an airtight wax cap.
Beekeepers check that honey is ripe: it must be less than one-fifth water. Then it won’t spoil.
That is why honey keeps so long. It has so little water that very few germs can live in it.
On average, a hive makes about 55 pounds of extra honey each year. The color depends on the flowers: orange blossom honey may be light, wildflower honey darker.
Wow number
55 pounds On average, a hive makes about 55 pounds of extra honey each year.
Myth or fact?
Honey goes bad after a year. Myth. Ripe honey in a sealed jar keeps for a very long time.
Honey’s color depends on the flowers. Fact. Orange blossom honey may be light; wildflower honey darker.
Think about it
Why do you think bees work so hard to dry out nectar?
Where in the world?
Davis, California, USA where honey experts explain why honey keeps so long: it has so little water that very few germs can live in it — 38.5449° N, 121.7405° W.
Where these facts come from
Every number on page 59, and who measured it
This page tells us about the bee's honey stomach and when honey is ripe.
University of Missouri Extension, which teaches about farming and nature
extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/Pro/4h/Docs/Projects/PlantsAnimals/Beekeeping/UnderstandingtheHoneybee.pdf
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us how much water bees take out of nectar.
How Is Honey Made? — Mississippi State University Extension
extension.msstate.edu/blogs/extension-for-real-life/how-honey-made
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us how bees fan their wings and seal honey with wax.
How Do Bees Make Honey? (It’s Not Just Bee Barf) — North Carolina State University
news.ncsu.edu/2013/06/how-do-bees-make-honey
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us how much honey a hive makes and why honey colors differ.
How Honey is Made — The National Honey Board, a U.S. group that shares facts about honey
honey.com/about-honey/how-honey-is-made
We checked it on 31 October 2026
This page tells us why honey keeps so long, with help from honey experts at UC Davis.
The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life — Smithsonian magazine, from the Smithsonian museums
smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-behind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690
We checked it on 31 October 2026
Has this changed?
How bees make honey is not going to change.
The 55 pounds is an average. A hive can make more or less depending on the year and the flowers.
Words from this page
- nectar
- The sweet liquid that flowers make.
- enzyme
- A natural chemical that helps change one thing into another.
Try it!
Race to dry with a fan.
1. Wet two paper towels and lay them flat. 2. Fan one with a piece of cardboard for 5 minutes. 3. Leave the other alone. Touch both.
What happens: the fanned towel dries faster. Moving air carries water away, just like bees’ fanning.
Go further