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Your Paw-some Question | Why do bees make honey?

• Washington State University • Season 5 • Episode 2

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Purr-haps you'd like a new way to get your claws on science questions sent in by kids like you. That's litter-ally my favorite thing.

Today Cosmo and I tackle a question from Gabby, 9, in Kansas: Why do bees make honey?

You'll hear:

  • What a bee proboscis is and why bees are so adorably hairy
  • Why some people call honey "bee barf" and what trophollaxis is 
  • How bees make foods like bee bread and honey

Resources you can use:


As always, submit burning questions at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. Who knows where your questions will take us next.

Dr. Universe:

Hey, Cosmo!

Cosmo:

Hey, Dr. Universe!

Dr. Universe:

What did the bee say to the flower?

Cosmo:

I don't know. What did the bee say to the flower?

Dr. Universe:

Hey, bud. Hey friends, I'm Dr. Universe,

Cosmo:

and I'm Cosmo,

Dr. Universe:

and if you're anything like us, you've got lots of big questions about our world. Today, we're talking about a column I wrote to answer a question sent in by a kid just like you. Let's get started.

Cosmo:

Gabby, nine, from Kansas, wants to know: why do bees make honey?

Dr. Universe:

It's such a good question. The short answer is, they make honey so they can eat it. It's the food honey bees eat in the winter. Do you know what adult honey bees eat most of the year?

Cosmo:

Yeah, nectar and pollen.

Dr. Universe:

Nectar is a sugary liquid that flowers make. The only reason a plant makes nectar is to lure pollinators like bees to visit the flowers. Bees have super long tongue-like things called a proboscis. They stick out that proboscis and use it like a straw to suck up the nectar. While they're doing that, a bunch of the flower's pollen gets stuck to the bees. That works because bees are super hairy, even their tongue-like proboscis is covered in little hairs. All those hairs help hold onto nectar and pollen. Have you ever seen a bee out visiting flowers?

Cosmo:

Yeah, they fly from flower to flower. Sometimes they stop for a bit, but then they move on to another flower.

Dr. Universe:

When they visit different flowers, some of the pollen they already picked up falls off. That's how plants make baby plants. They need a pollinator, like a bee, to move the pollen from plant to plant.

Cosmo:

I've seen bees with lots of yellow pollen stuck to their legs and bodies.

Dr. Universe:

Totally. They take some of the pollen back to their colony and make it into bee bread. I'm going to give you the recipe for bee bread so you can read it.

Cosmo:

Okay! It says they mix pollen and nectar, and put it in an open space in the honeycomb called a cell. Then they cover it with honey and let it ferment. That means it starts to break down and change. It's similar to how humans make yogurt, sauerkraut, and sourdough bread.

Dr. Universe:

Bee bread is an important food for bees because it contains protein. That helps baby bees grow.

Cosmo:

That's what my mom always tells me, that I need protein to grow.

Dr. Universe:

Exactly. But pollen and bee bread aren't the main things adult bees eat. They mostly eat the sugary sweet nectar they slurp up from flowers.

Cosmo:

That actually sounds pretty tasty.

Dr. Universe:

While they're out visiting flowers, they swallow a bunch of nectar and store it in a special pouch called the honey stomach. It's not the same as their regular stomach.

Cosmo:

But what if they get hungry while they're doing all that work?

Dr. Universe:

Well, they can eat a little of the nectar to give them energy to do their job, but most of it goes to the honey stomach. I have to warn you, this is where it starts to get a little intense. Proteins in the bee spit start changing the nectar right away. When the bee gets back to the colony, she barfs up the nectar she's carrying in her honey stomach right into the mouth of another bee.

Cosmo:

No, that is so gross!

Dr. Universe:

It's called trophallaxis. It's something that social insects that live and work all together in a big group do to pass on food and information and other stuff,

Cosmo:

That makes me want to barf!

Dr. Universe:

So the bees barf it from one bee's mouth, to another bee's mouth, to another bee's mouth. It mixes with more and more bee's spit and turns more and more into honey. When it's ready, the last bee spits it into a cell in the honeycomb.

Cosmo:

Oh, thank goodness!

Dr. Universe:

Then the bees turn around and flap their wings super fast to blow air at the honey. Have you ever flapped your paw in front of something to make it dry faster?

Cosmo:

Yeah! Sometimes, if I'm doing crafts and I want the glue to dry right away.

Dr. Universe:

All that wing flapping removes water from the honey until it's just right. Then the bees seal it up with wax.

Cosmo:

Then, they can eat it when it's winter and there aren't any flowers around to make nectar and pollen.

Dr. Universe:

Exactly. It's like how we store food in our cabinets or fridge.

Cosmo:

Oh no. Does that mean we eat the bee's winter food when we eat honey? Because I really like honey on my toast.

Dr. Universe:

Don't worry, bees make way more honey than they need. And honey bees aren't exactly like wild insects. They're more like cows or chickens that people take care of. Beekeepers are careful to only take the extra honey that bees don't need, and if they realize their bees need extra food, they can make sugar water or special candy that bees eat. It's like nectar made by people.

Cosmo:

Well, that's a relief. So I can eat all the bee barf honey I want without worrying about the bees? Yep. Even though lots and lots of bees barfed it up.

Dr. Universe:

Someday, I'll tell you about the other kind of trophallaxis some social insects do, the kind that comes from one insect's rear end.

Cosmo:

No!

Dr. Universe:

That's all for this episode, friends.

Cosmo:

Big thanks to Rae Olsson, insect scientist at Washington State University, for lending their expertise to this question.

Dr. Universe:

As always, if you've got a science question for me, you can submit it at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. That's A-S-K-D-R-U-N-I-V-E-R-S-E dot W-S-U dot E-D-U. Who knows where your questions will take us next!