Bee Rescue Remedy

[Daisy]

I mentioned some time ago about keeping sugar syrup made up for exhausted bees in the summer. But perhaps summer's come a bit earlier this year. Yesterday oH noticed a large bee (I don't know what kind) exhausted and barely alive in our dining room. It was on the door mat, so he gently lifted the mat outside while I made some sugar syrup. I put a few drops down for the bee, but 10 minutes later it hadn't moved. Sadly, I thought we were too late.

OH came out into the garden no more than 2 minutes later, and went to have a look. It had gone - flown away! They are so amazing the way they recover when they've had a snack!

Gem - was it you who said that bees were nesting in your bird box at one time?

Sugar Syrup - I keep a small pot ready made up as soon as the bees appear. I put a couple of teaspoons of sugar and about the same of hot water in a little ceramic bowl. Stir it up and microwave it in 20 second bursts until the sugar is dissolved. When it's cooled down I leave it handy in the kitchen, covered with cling film and a couple of cocktail sticks with it to act as a "dropper". I just make fresh when it's getting too sticky. We put two or three drops about 1 - 2 mm from the bee's face, and usually you see their tongues come out and start drinking.

[Oma]

Funny you should say this Daisy my DD put a little video on FB last week of her feeding a big bee sugar syrup , it had landed and she said it drank the syrup for ages then went on it’s way .
Its a lovely little video in close up , I will see if she can set it to share xx

[Nanto2girls]

Daisy, i've heard of this before.

[Daisy]

Oma - I'd love to see the video if you can share it.

Nanto - I'm worried about the plight of bees and other pollinating insects. The use of neonicotinoids (an insecticide) was all but stopped in 2013. By 2020 there was only one authorised for use. But in January this year the Government authorised an emergency application for use of a chemical called thiamethoxam - a neonicotinoid. It was supposedly to stop a threat to sugar beet crops from a virus carried by aphids, and there are no alternative products to do this. Sugar beet is a high value crop.

So I figure that every bee we can save is precious and valuable.

[Gemini]

Daisy, one year we had bees nesting in one of the 2 hedgehog boxes, and last year in a bird box, as you remembered.

As well as water for hedgehogs, we leave shallow bowls with glass pebbles in so bees can drink and not drown.

[Daisy]

Gem - I'd forgotten about the bees in the hedgehog box, but have been keeping an eye on out new bird box hoping to see birds or bees using it!

Saying about the shallow bowls with pebbles has reminded me that I need to put my equivalent back in the garden. It's just a shallow plant pot saucer with various size stones to enable small birds and insects to drink from it.

[Plantaholic]

I agree about the bees Daisy, my GD’s, when they were little, used to put the poorly bees in a wheelbarrow with some clover flowers.

[Grauntie Mag]

I have the dish with pebbles in too. Never made the bee revival remedy but I will now. I have just found an almost black bee on its last legs and I have put it on some wallflowers, I hope it survives. I always have to look in my insect book to identify the kind of bee it is!

[Daisy]

Grauntie - well done for offering that poorly bee some delicious wallflower pollen. I don't know one bee from another, but it's very satisfying when you see them revive and zoom off again.

[Plantaholic]

Before my OH kept bees I used to think the little bumble bee was a honey bee. I have some bees that live in a bank close to where I sit, they are a nuisance but I can’t kill them, I presume they pollinate as well as annoy me. I will they would go elsewhere.

[Daisy]

Funny you should say this Daisy my DD put a little video on FB last week of her feeding a big bee sugar syrup , it had landed and she said it drank the syrup for ages then went on it’s way .
Its a lovely little video in close up , I will see if she can set it to share xx

Oma - it's lovely (I don't know how you managed to show it to me, but thank you). It was certainly enjoying that sugar syrup - you could almost hear it slurping it up.