This magnificent and large Bumblebee crawled out from hibernation one morning a couple of days ago.
It emerged groggily from the log pile looking weak and scruffy, and then carefully positioned itself in the spring sunshine to warm up.
After doing some gardening, I checked on it a few hours later and was a bit worried that it hadn't moved. I took some photos and then settled down by the pond to relax and watch the insects buzzing the water. The bee sat motionless for a long time, but eventually, after some warm up wing buzzes, it launched into the air. Unfortunately it was destined to plummet straight into the pond. I gently fished it out and put it back into the sun to dry.
Sadly, some more hours later it was very, very weak and could barely walk. It made no further attempts to fly so I placed it on a Marsh Marigold flower in the hope it could feed. Mouthparts out and searching, it couldn't find any nectar, and just got covered in pollen for its efforts. I wasn't sure what else to do.
I couldn't bring myself to just leave it to die, so I mixed up some sugar and water in a little pot lid and offered it to the bee. It came alive immediately and drank copiously for almost 10 minutes.
A few minutes and lots of abdomen wiggling later, its buzzed a bit and soared into the air. After making a couple of confident circles of the garden, it flew strongly away, leaving me with a warm fuzzy feeling of having saved a life.
Bee Drinking Sugarwater, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.
It emerged groggily from the log pile looking weak and scruffy, and then carefully positioned itself in the spring sunshine to warm up.After doing some gardening, I checked on it a few hours later and was a bit worried that it hadn't moved. I took some photos and then settled down by the pond to relax and watch the insects buzzing the water. The bee sat motionless for a long time, but eventually, after some warm up wing buzzes, it launched into the air. Unfortunately it was destined to plummet straight into the pond. I gently fished it out and put it back into the sun to dry.
Sadly, some more hours later it was very, very weak and could barely walk. It made no further attempts to fly so I placed it on a Marsh Marigold flower in the hope it could feed. Mouthparts out and searching, it couldn't find any nectar, and just got covered in pollen for its efforts. I wasn't sure what else to do.
I couldn't bring myself to just leave it to die, so I mixed up some sugar and water in a little pot lid and offered it to the bee. It came alive immediately and drank copiously for almost 10 minutes.A few minutes and lots of abdomen wiggling later, its buzzed a bit and soared into the air. After making a couple of confident circles of the garden, it flew strongly away, leaving me with a warm fuzzy feeling of having saved a life.
Bee Drinking Sugarwater, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.
