The Honey-Makers

Half natural history, half literature: how the honey-bee actually works — tongue, wings, sting, swarm — and then three thousand years of what people have believed about her, from the Vedas to mead.

Honey-Sac and Wax-Pockets

2 pages in this part of The Honey-Makers.

Honey-Sac and Wax-Pockets

THE bees are chemists, transforming the thin crude nectar of the blossoms into honey, delicious to the taste and differing from nectar in…

Honey-Sac and Wax-Pockets: Moffett

Moffett recommends giving infants honey for "breeding teeth," and a modern writer says, "Honey promotes the excretions and dissolves the…

Rights & ReuseThe complete text of The Honey-Makers (1899) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.