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In short, honey bees make honey as a way of storing food to eat over the cooler winter period, when they are unable to forage and there are fewer flowers from which to gather food.
Honey is ideal for bees - it is full of nutrients and is a great energy food, because it is high in sugars.
When you consider that whilst flying, a honey bee's wings beat about 11,400 times per minute, you can guess they need a great deal of energy!
They also beat their wings to regulate the temperature in the hive - even when they are not flying out to forage for food, there is tremendous activity in the hive, and all this work requires energy.
How is honey made?
Honey bees convert the sweet nectar they gather from flowers into honey.
The nectar is stored in honeycombs.
Why do bees make honey, then store it? Why don't they simply eat it as they go along?
Well imagine this. You're stuck in your home, and the weather is so cold for you, that you're unable to go out and get food. Oh, and even if you could, there wouldn't be much around anyway!
That's what it's like for honey bees in winter in cold weather.
For this reason, they collect, then store their food to last them through the winter months.
Then, come spring, the weather will warm up, the flowers will begin to appear, and they'll be able to collect food again.
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