Honey is one of the oldest sweet foods in the world. People have been eating honey for thousands of years. But honey doesn't grow in jars on store shelves. It is made by tiny insects called honeybees, and the process is more amazing than most people realize.

Honeybees live in groups called colonies. A single colony can have up to 60,000 bees. Each bee has a job. Worker bees are the ones who collect the food. They fly from flower to flower, sucking up a sweet liquid called nectar with a long, straw-like tongue.

A worker bee carries the nectar back to the hive in a special second stomach called a "honey stomach." Once she returns, she passes the nectar to another bee mouth-to-mouth. The bees in the hive chew the nectar for about 30 minutes. While they chew, the nectar slowly turns into honey.

The bees then spread the honey into small wax containers called honeycomb cells. The honey is still wet at this point, so the bees flap their wings hard over the cells. The flapping creates a breeze that dries the honey. When the honey is thick enough, the bees seal each cell with a wax cap to keep it fresh.

A single worker bee will only make about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her whole life. To make one pound of honey, bees must visit around two million flowers. The next time you spread honey on toast, remember the small workers who made it possible.