The Shrewd Gardener

For Clever Gardeners Everywhere

Deed for the day: Helping a BumbleBee

Posted on | March 22, 2010 | No Comments

BumbleBee Rescue

Rescuing the BumbleBee

Spring has finally arrived and so we were busy in the garden over the weekend. As the weather becomes finer we are starting to see more insect life, notably the BumbleBees as they come out of hibernation.

It’s a fact that some do better than others and I was impressed to see a couple of BumbleBees coming out from a hidey hole somewhere in the structure of our conservatory. It was such a hard Winter  that they did well to survive. It might have helped to be close to the house where conditions a a little milder.

Of the two bees we saw emerging one of them was flying away within about 15 minutes of sunning itself on the wall. However, the second bee was less spritely and we found it a few minutes later trying, in vain, to extract some nectar from a Daffodil.

Seeing the Bee struggling we decided to help it out and my five year old son suggested we feed it some honey which he then fetched for us. Incredibly the bee virtually leapt on the small pool of honey and we saw it drink a fair amount. It’s amazing to see the proboscis and tongue working as it drank the sticky liquid.

Five minutes later the bee was strong enough to fly away. I’m sure that without a little bit of assistance from us it would not have survived. Deed done!

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Category: Ecology, Gardening For Children, wildlife
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  • About

    This is where I blog about my interest in gardening and ecology. There is always something to do in the garden all year round and as we have an inner city garden the tasks are a little different to rural spaces.

    I work as a software developer now but a few years ago I had my own gardening design and construction business.

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