Tree bumblebee queen gets just the right tonic!
I was just leaving today to go to give a garden bumblebee talk at Risley Moss when I saw this exhausted queen Bombus hypnorum right on my drive.
Much appreciated!!
This time of the year I have a bag of fructose handy for this very reason. 50/50 dissolved in warm water does the trick. I don’t now use honey as this may have some bee pathogens or diseases in it and besides fructose is much easier to dissolve! Of course ordinary sugar will do.
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It was a cool and dull day and to be honest she does not look like she is in prime condition at the moment. Neither does she have the vivid gingerish thorax usually seen on these bees, although I have seen others like this with a darker thorax. 2 hours later she was still there. It was still rather cool and after another feed she primed her wing muscles and flew up and away with a thumbs up sign to me!! Wonderful.
For more information and a download info sheet visit BWARS
For a detailed introduction try this from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust
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