Feeding A Bee Sugar Water
How you can rescue an exhausted Bee by feeding it a sugar water solution.
A little Iberian Honey Bee feeds off sugar water from a spoon to recharge her batteries 🙂 Snap shot from video.
A Girl Out of Gas!
Sometimes when you’re out and about on your daily walks and travels or pottering about in the garden you might see a bee moving around slowly on the ground. She’s alright and has most probably just run out of fuel and just needs a little boost! a little helping hand 🙂
Often you will notice this happens in winter when there are not so many flowers in abundance and as a result not so much nectar freely available.
It would be similar to taking away someone’s finely prepared meal and replacing it with a Mcdonald’s!
Watch the following video below to recap these tips and see the little bee perk up about 20 minutes after refilling her fuel tank.
What Can You Do?
So here is how you can save a bee by feeding a bee sugar water. One thing I will add is that we could plant more winter-flowing plants in our garden so bees can replenish their dwindling honey stores though out the winter months. This could bee *mind the pun* a lifesaver for our little friends. But this is a project for another time and will not help out the little lass at the moment.
What we can do for the little bee in need of help at the moment is mix up a little concoction to get her fired up! Now feeding bees sugar water is never a replacement for good old nutritional nectar, that they get from flowers. Many beekeepers today have the awful practice of taking all the honey from hives and then giving them a sugar water substitute as a replacement. It shows no love for the little creatures that worked so hard to produce this liquid gold we call honey. It would be the very same as taking away someone’s finely prepared meal and replacing it with a Macdonald’s.
Modern beekeeping practices have only financial gain in mind, but we will leave this rant for another time. But it’s no wonder that Bees are dying from colony collapse disorder and struggle to fight off pests and diseases. Poor nutrition is the cause of many ailments.
But don’t worry this time, this little shot of sugar water is just to help serve the purpose of getting the little miss back into action.
A Close up of a Western Honey Bee Apis mellifera iberiensis resting on a leaf
Once she detects it, she will dig right in!
How to feed a Bee Sugar Water
Grab yourself a teaspoon and add some drops of water and a small little pinch of sugar and stir it until it completely dissolves.
Now just gently place the bee near the spoon and once she detects it, she will dig right in!
I have done this countless times now to great success and it’s such a pleasure to watch each time. Also, I’ll add that I have, to date, never been stung picking up and handing the little creature with the utmost care.
Iberian Honey Bee sitting on my hand ready to fly after been revived with honey water – Snap shot from video.
Well, that’s it, let me know how you get on! And if you are part of the unlucky few that have anaphylaxis! then don’t risk your life. I have never been stung handling bees in this way but there is always a first time and I would not want it to be your last.
Have a good day guys.
Alex
HELP TO KEEP THIS WEBSITE AD-FREE
We all know how terribly annoying web ads are and I can not bring myself to ruin your browsing experience by littering my site with them.
For the price of a cup of coffee, you can help to support this site and the creation of future content.