i agree with Matt about planting bee friendly flowers, especially simple flower types - avoid double petal varieties.
Honeybees sometimes lose their sense of direction because of over exposure to chemicals, particularly neonicotinoids. This is now affecting the BB populatio as well.
I've currently got one in the GH. I had to go to plan B after reading Jess' post.
Found it on the soil about 3pm so lifeless I nearly missed it. A very thin weak looking one. So I put "him" on a plastic plate, pulled some blossom from the Choisya ( only had two bits in flower) put that near him, and a flower from a hellebore! That was first stop in A & E.
Next step after admission, I didn't have jam, so he got the suggested water & sugar on a very shallow jar lid. He slowly with prompt crawled to it and just flopped head first in it. I had to pick him out and put him on kitchen towel to dry.
Then I popped back on here and read about honey, so he got a spoonful of M honey. Currently still on his plate with food offerings, gently covered with a double piece of fleece.
Not holding out much hope, but I've done my best.
Total opposite I've had two lovely fat bees visiting the Hellebores. Lovely to hear them buzzing.
A brilliant story, one that we should all adhere to. We can make a difference if we are receptive to any bees we see that are looking a bit bewildered, as they emerge from hibernation. Thanks for the info Kate, you are a very special bee saviour.
I work in a garden centre, & they all laugh at me when I collect up wet, cold bees (usually bumble bees), bring them to some of the flowering plants we have under cover. I usually have some kitchen towel or tissue to set them on, if they're really soggy. Once they've dried off a little, I try to get them onto an open flower, in the sun (when we have some!) I didn't know about the sugar solution myself, but I may arm myself with a small bottle of it for future use. I often get asked why I'm not scared of the bees when I'm sorting through the flowering plants (rhododendrons,lavender & scabious being the most heavily visited)& I explain that I think they know I'm not trying to hurt them.
Posts
i agree with Matt about planting bee friendly flowers, especially simple flower types - avoid double petal varieties.
Honeybees sometimes lose their sense of direction because of over exposure to chemicals, particularly neonicotinoids. This is now affecting the BB populatio as well.
Earlyer this week we were out and saw three or four large field's of oil seed rape in flower.
Lovely story.
Here is a bee we 'saved' a few months ago in North London - it got prime organic Greek honey (our bees are posh y'know)
and flew off, happy as L
arry, in no time.
I've currently got one in the GH. I had to go to plan B after reading Jess' post.
Found it on the soil about 3pm so lifeless I nearly missed it. A very thin weak looking one. So I put "him" on a plastic plate, pulled some blossom from the Choisya ( only had two bits in flower
) put that near him, and a flower from a hellebore! That was first stop in A & E.
Next step after admission, I didn't have jam, so he got the suggested water & sugar on a very shallow jar lid. He slowly with prompt crawled to it and just flopped head first in it. I had to pick him out and put him on kitchen towel to dry.
Then I popped back on here and read about honey, so he got a spoonful of M honey. Currently still on his plate with food offerings, gently covered with a double piece of fleece.
Not holding out much hope, but I've done my best.
Total opposite I've had two lovely fat bees visiting the Hellebores. Lovely to hear them buzzing.
Fingers crossed for him
Don't think I was meant to be a "bee nurse", patient hasn't survived the night.