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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff Works dot com

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Speaker 1: where smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question,

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Speaker 1: how do honey bees make honey? A honey bee starts

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Speaker 1: the honeymaking process by visiting a flower and gathering some

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Speaker 1: of its nectar. Many plants use nectar as a way

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Speaker 1: of attracting insects like bees, wasps, and butterflies to stop

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Speaker 1: at the flower. In the process of gathering the nectar,

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Speaker 1: the insect transfers pollen grains from one flower to another

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Speaker 1: and pollinates the flower. Most flower nectars are similar to

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Speaker 1: sugar water sucros mixed with a lot of water. Nectars

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Speaker 1: can contain other beneficial substances as well. To make honey,

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Speaker 1: two things have to happen. First, enzymes that the bees

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Speaker 1: produced turn the sucros, which is a die sac ride,

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Speaker 1: into glucose, which is a monos sac ride. Second, most

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Speaker 1: of the moisture has to be evaporated out of the nectar,

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Speaker 1: leaving only about eighteen percent water in honey. The enzyme

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Speaker 1: is called invertase. It breaks sucrose, which is generally made

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Speaker 1: of two glucose molecules apart, into their separate glucose molecules.

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Speaker 1: Another enzymes that the bees produce is able to convert

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Speaker 1: some of the glucose into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide,

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Speaker 1: both of which act as preservatives. Bees evaporate the water

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Speaker 1: out of the honey by putting small drops of it

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Speaker 1: on the comb and fanning it with their wings. The

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Speaker 1: effect is to make honey a very stable food. It

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Speaker 1: naturally resists mold, fungi, and other bacteria, allowing it to

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Speaker 1: last for years without refrigeration. For more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Because it how stuff works, dot

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Speaker 1: com