Honey is a very dry product, mostly sugar. Any water that comes into contact with it will be drawn in by osmosis. As a result, most bacteria are dehydrated, killing them or rendering them weak and fragile.
Bees also treat the honey with an enzyme that generates free radicals, in effect sterilizing the honey with hydrogen peroxide.
In ancient times, honey was sometimes used as a wound dressing, and some modern doctors still use sugar. Experts say the treatment probably works because sugar dries the bed of the wound to promote new tissue growth and dehydrates the bacteria that cause infection.
There are commercial wound pastes made of synthetic microscopic water-absorbing, bends that do the something.