DesignScape - 2'x4' Honeycomb

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Get one for the honeycomb hideout! Bees make honey to store up as food for the winter months when there are fewer flowers to collect nectar from. Honey is usually made from nectar, the sweet liquid produced by flowers to entice bees and spread their pollen. A worker bee sucks up the nectar through a long, thin tube called a proboscis and keeps it in a special honey stomach, known as the crop, which can hold up to 80% of a bee’s weight in nectar. Inside, the bee’s enzymes, including one called invertase, begin to break down the complex sugars into simpler ones that are less prone to crystallizing. Once the worker returns to the hive, forager bees pass the nectar to each other from mouth to mouth. Workers that are younger than the foragers then pack the nectar into hexagon-shaped cells in the honeycomb that are made of beeswax. Next, they fan the nectar with their wings to encourage evaporation. While nectar is 70 to 80% water, these processes reduce its water content to around 18% and turn it into honey. The high concentration of sugar ensures that bacteria and fungi can’t grow, meaning honey can be stored indefinitely without spoiling.