Karl von Frisch Does Sweet Talk

As promised...

It is incorrect to say that bees collect honey; they collect nectar, from which they make honey. Freshly collected nectar is distributed amongst the members of the colony who, by means of repeated regurgitations, expose droplets of it to the warm air through their mouths. In this way, much of the water evaporates and the substance then thickens once more in the open cells. Honey, which keeps well, develops out of the thin nectar in a few days. At the same time, by the addition of glandular secretions, sugar is transformed into an easily digestible form by the same process that goes on in our own digestive tracts. The work of digestion is thus perfomred in advance. Also, by a process still unknown to us, the honey absorbs certain substances from the flowers and also from the bees' bodies which increases its food value. In this way, bees convert the sweet juices of flowers into delicious food.
-p. 13, The Dancing Bees, Karl von Frisch, 1953