The diagram illustrates that beekeeping and human intervention are the two main stages in the commercial production of honey.
Forager bees begin the process by collecting nectar from flowers. This is brought back to the hive and placed in wax cells as very runny honey. Then, worker bees fan their wings to dry them, adding thickness. After that, each cell is wax-sealed to keep the material clean; the assembled cells create the honeycombs, which are transported to the factory. The honey is extracted by pressing them there, and the liquid is then transferred to the sump tank, the uppermost of the three containers, which is heated to a temperature between 45 and 500 °C.
As a result, it becomes sufficiently thin to move gravitationally to the following tank, where contaminants are removed by sieving. After that, it flows to the final container, the settling tank, where it remains for two to four days until being drained into jars. After labelling, the jars are delivered to the sale location.