BICU

Now, this may not look like much to you but this is actually a Bee Intensive Care Unit.

Whilst watering my plants in the greenhouse I noticed a little bee in one of my pots which I thought had sadly died. On closer inspection however I noticed that he was breathing but very weak. I lifted the pot outside and placed it in some sunshine and wondered what I could do to help the little bee. I then remembered reading that sugar water can help them (not honey as this can kill them). So of I went and filled a little bottle top with some sugar water, it occurred to me though, that he was actually too weak to crawl to the sugar water so I used a baby lettuce leaf dipped in the water as a little spoon and put this under his *nose* (bee anatomy not my strong point!). Well, to my amazement and delight, the little fella started lapping it up, now I've seen bees on the telly using their tongue to obtain nectar but never in real life and it was pretty amazing! After a few minutes I placed the bottle top near by and watched him drink from that and then went to get my camera as I thought it would make a good blip. On my return he was running around the plant pot and I had just sat down when he took off (albeit a bit wobbly) and he was soon buzzing into the sage and strawberry flowers
:-)))

So instead of a wonderful picture of me hand feeding a bee you have got one of a bottle top but I am actually glad I spent time just sitting there and watching him otherwise I would have missed it all together.