winter | Ask Dr. Universe | Washington State University

Why do bees make honey? – Gabby, 9, Kansas

January 2, 2025 melissamayer

Dear Gabby,

As a science cat, I don’t stir honey into my tea or drizzle it on my biscuits. I don’t have taste receptors for sweet things. Honey doesn’t have a taste to me.

But my human friends gobble up the honey made by the Washington State University bees. I asked my friend Rae Olsson why bees make that sticky stuff in the first place. Olsson is an insect scientist.

It turns out honey is the way honey bees store food for the winter.

“Just like we store food in our refrigerators and pantries, bees turn nectar from flowers into honey, so it doesn’t spoil,” Olsson said.

Where do frogs go in the winter? – Landon, 13, Washington

March 7, 2024 melissamayer

Dear Landon,

When the cold weather comes, I bundle up in a sweater and explore the snow.

But my frog friends are never around then. In fact, I’ve never seen a frog in a sweater.

I asked my friend Erica Crespi why that is. She’s a biologist at Washington State University. She studies frogs and other amphibians.

She told me frogs are different from you and me. We’re warm-blooded. Our bodies use energy to make heat. When it’s cold outside, it’s still warm inside our bodies. We just put on warm clothes to keep our heat from escaping.

But frogs are cold-blooded. They don’t spend a lot of energy making heat. So, when it’s cold outside, it’s cold inside a frog’s body, too. That could be bad news during a winter freeze.

Crespi told me that’s why most frogs living in places with cold winters find a slightly warmer place to hunker down.