A Very Lucky Bee

I found a very weak bee in our utility room this morning.  He really looked on his last legs so I put him outside to see if he would fly away and he was motionless.  

I had read somewhere previously that he may be hungry or thirsty and you can help the bees by mixing a solution of water and sugar and present to them in a very shallow dish or plate with the solution just a couple of millimetres deep (you don't want them to drown!)

I put the bee carefully at the end of the solution and left him for about half an hour.  When I checked there had been no movement and I thought the bee was dead.

I checked again a little later and to my delight and surprise the bee was drinking the solution, he had come around.  He had been motionless for over an hour by this time.

As he had fallen in to the solution I thought his wings may have been a bit sticky and he couldn't fly off so I moved him carefully again to the sunshine to dry out and moved my interested cats away.

He started to buzz gently and his wings were moving.... was he going to fly?

Oh yes, a few minutes later he buzzed very loudly and took off and flew over my head.

You may think its very silly but I felt a huge sense of satisfaction that I had saved a bee.  They really need our help as they are in decline, so please remember when you see a motionless bee that all they may need is a drink and some energy from a bit of dissolved sugar in a shallow dish, or smooth surface!

Whilst the bee was resting I quickly grabbed my macro lens and here are a couple of images of one very lucky bee before he flew off.

resting bee but now wide awake - he is sitting on a small white plate with some sugar solution on it.

he is having drink of the sugar solution - how amazing! look at his tongue?