That 16-ounce honey bear in your pantry exists only because tens of thousands of bees flew some 112,000 miles in a relentless, unquestioned pursuit of nectar gathered from 4.5 million flowers. Every one of those foraging bees was female. By the time the life of each ended—they live all of 6 weeks during honey-making season—each bee flew about 500 miles in 20 days, the span each lives outside the hive.

As these bees were flying themselves to death, the production inside the hive continued with stupendous efficiency, in the following sequence: Bee brings nectar to hive, carried tidily in her "honey stomach." Bee is greeted (cheerfully, one suspects) by a younger, homebody receiver bee, who relieves her of her load. Receiver bee deposits nectar into a cell and proceeds to reduce its water content and raise its sugar level by fanning it with her wings and regurgitating it up to 200 times, killing microbes along the way. More bees surround this cell and others nearby and fan them with their wings 25,000 times or so, thus turning nectar into honey. When the honey is ripened, wax specialists arrive to cap off the cells. And that is how every single ounce of every single honey pot, bottle, or jar in the world—hundreds of thousands of them—is brought into being.

"Every gulp of raw honey is a distinct, unique, unadulterated medley of plant flavor; a sweet, condensed garden in your mouth," writes Holley Bishop, an awed amateur beekeeper trying her level best with ordinary English to capture a miracle.