Taking the bees to the flowers.  Beekeepers often travel hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles to take their hives to areas where particular flowers are blooming.  Timing is crucial since some plants and trees have very short blooming cycles.  Once in a new spot full of flower, honeybees will take off, collecting flower nectar in their honey pouch, a sort of second stomach where the store nectar before it's deposited at the hive.

Once at the hive, so called “house bees” will take the nectar and masticate it, mixing it with an enzyme they have in their mouths.  This enzyme helps evaporate the water in nectar, thus concentrating the nectar into honey.  The honey is then stored in the hive. 

When a tray is full of honey, the bees will seal it with wax.  That’s how the bee keeper knows it’s ready. 

Checking the hives.  It can take months for bees to fill their hives with honey.  The beekeeper will periodically check on the hives to make sure the bees are fine and to see the progress of honey production. 

Once the hive is full of honey, the beekeeper will bring it back to his farm.  The trays are then drained. 

The honey is filtered to remove “beesknees” and other impurities.

  Finally, the honey is jarred. 

  Photo credit: Marshall's Honey