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**Plot17B** · 11-06-2009, 11:27 PM

Just a quick comment, always use sugar solution. NEVER USE HONEY for honey bees. Commercial honey comes from mixed sources and especially if it is from overseas, it will have viral diesease particles which then transmits the disease to the local colonies.

There are innumerate examples where very serious diseases have been passed to UK honey bee colonies due to feeding of honey, leading to the hives/colonies having to be destroyed. You may save one bee but you'll potentially kill tens of thousands.

And often the bee might be cold and thus lethargic, and not actually ill or "dying". Warm them up and offer 2:1 sugar:water solution and let them go. Usually, they will be ok.
Cheers
P17B

**ginger ninger** · 12-06-2009, 08:34 AM

Thanks P17B
I used heather honey from of the Yorkshire Moor, so i think i can safely say it was English honey and very nice i might add, but you do make a vary good point (which i might add wasn't mentioned on "SPINGWATCH"). The bee i rescued was very hungry!!

**21again** · 14-06-2009, 10:07 PM

How do you make a sugar solution for bees, is it just a bit of granulated sugar in some warm water to help it dissolve and how much?

**Snadger** · 14-06-2009, 10:28 PM

Good tip...and very ingratiating to see the bee fly away as well!

**Plot17B** · 15-06-2009, 08:36 PM

Hi,
When feeding honey bees, usually use a 2lb:1pint granulated white sugar:water mixture.
Heat up to dissolve all the sugar then let it cool.
Should do the trick. :-)
P17B

**tizzycat** · 17-06-2009, 10:56 AM

I must have missed that Spring Watch. Thanks for the tip, I often see "tired" bees in my garden.I always move them out of harms way but I'll give that a try.

**Topcat36** · 09-07-2009, 11:18 AM

Just did this today, placed bee on warm tree stump and fed it sugar water took a while as it was hardly moving but gradually it picked up and started moving around and after a while it flew away.

**Nicos** · 09-07-2009, 11:25 AM

Originally posted by Plot17B View Post

Hi,
When feeding honey bees, usually use a 2lb:1pint granulated white sugar:water mixture.

P17B

Urm....what's that in teaspoons and grams????

( presuming there's only one bee to rescue???)

**Mac** · 10-07-2009, 10:39 AM

Having watched Spring Watch, and having a bee colony nesting in the wall next to the front door, we are finding quite a few bees needing assistance in this way. This little one was last nights struggler! It was quite happy drinking the honey for a good half hour!

Attached Files

bee drinking honey.jpg (0, 170 views)

**LostGoddess** · 10-07-2009, 04:14 PM

A friend told us to do this and since then we have revived alot of bees.
I am grateful for the info about the honey, we haven't used it so far but have thought of using it.

My worst bee moment this year was finding a very upset bee stuck to the sticky fly paper in the conservatory. Thankfully got him unstuck using pieces of paper right next to him so that when he dislodged a leg he had somewhere un-sticky to put it. Goes without saying the fly paper got consigned to the cupboard after that!

**Plot17B** · 10-07-2009, 11:08 PM

Originally posted by Nicos View Post

Urm....what's that in teaspoons and grams????

( presuming there's only one bee to rescue???)

ooohhhhh surely that equates to a smidgeon of sugar with just a tad of water.......errmmmmm

P17B

**vikkib** · 11-07-2009, 06:40 AM

Originally posted by Plot17B View Post

And often the bee might be cold and thus lethargic, and not actually ill or "dying". Warm them up and offer 2:1 sugar:water solution and let them go. Usually, they will be ok.
Cheers
P17B

I'd read something similar on the vine a while back which meant when it absolutely poured down a few weeks ago OH and I fished out a few drowning bees which before, we would have assumed, were lost causes as they weren't moving.

Instead we popped some warm water in a bowl and put some thick card over the top with a couple of sheets of absorbent kitchen towel and popped the bees on that. Popped a few drops of sugar solution on there with them and within a few minutes they had started moving again and within half an hour they had dried out, fed and flew off again.

We've got a bees nest in the garden which we've become very protective of!

The one's in the first pics were comparitively small (about 3/4" to 1" long) but a couple of days ago I spotted this bee pootling around outside the entrance to the nest. It's about 1 1/2" in length.

Could it be a queen bee?

Attached Files

**vikkib** · 11-07-2009, 06:50 AM

Originally posted by Nicos View Post

Urm....what's that in teaspoons and grams????

( presuming there's only one bee to rescue???)

Hmmmmm....

There's about 570ml to a pint and about 6ml to a teaspoon.

About 454 grams to a pound so...

There's about 95 teaspoons in a pint and 454 x 2 / 95 = 9.5g

So does that mean dissolve about 9.5g of sugar in a teaspoon of water?

I can't visualise what 9.5g of sugar is so don't know if it's even feasible to dissolve that amount of sugar in that amount of water!

**Sonata** · 11-07-2009, 08:47 AM

Ooh I tried this the other day with a very very poorly looking bumble bee. I had to really encourage it, poor thing. I guestimated the amounts, but it seemed to have worked as it went from looking dead to..well it must have been good as it had disappeared.

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