Italian bee (Apis mellifera ligustica) - Honey is made from the flowers' nectar, certain components of which are hard to digest. When the worker bees bring the pollen back to the hive, they transfer it through trophallaxis (mouth-to-mouth) to the receiving bees. These latter transfer it several times between their mouth and their crop then pass it on to other receiving bees and so on. Under the effects of an enzyme from glandular secretions, the invertase, the sugars are slowly modified.