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Gardeners Told to Give Exhausted Bees an Energy Drink
In an effort to help Britain's declining bee population, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is urging gardeners to leave out a homemade energy drink for tired bees. The RSPB says that a mix of two tablespoons of sugar with a tablespoon of water makes a perfect bee-boosting drink. Val Osborne, head of wildlife inquiries at the RSPB, said, "Many people keep seeing bees on the ground and assume they are dead, but chances are they are having a rest. Much like us, a sugary drink could boost their energy levels and a simple sugar and water combination will be a welcome treat."
The bees will have trouble sleeping at night and by the end of the week they will be in a barely conscious stupor.
Trust me.
Maybe they need an extra set of wings?
This is an ex-bee!
Next thing you know we will be complaining about a diabetic and obese bee population.
GO BLUE!
Yellow jackets are protein eaters (other bugs, roadkill). They don't make honey. In the late summer / early fall they lose their normal food sources and they start going after carbohydrates -- sugary soda and pretty much anything on the picnic table.
They're also super aggressive at that time of year and can sting repeatedly. Which is why I hang a yellow jacket trap to kill as many as possible. 10 in the last day!
my Unlce used to keep bees, before he became allergic to them. leaving sugar water was always SOP. especially during those times of years when flowering was low.
i really dislike this bee paranoia. first honey bees are NOT native to North America, although the article is from the UK. in fact Naive Americans called them the "white man's fly". Bees are not the sole pollinators of everything either. the major crops grown in my home state don't rely on pollinators. corn and wheat are not pollinated by bees, nor are numerous other species. many crops are grown and produced from cloning/cutting and still many plants use other insects as pollinators. look at the many species of figs that often are associated with just one species of wasp.
My only question would be how this affects their ability to collect pollen and make honey back at the hive. If it allows them to pollinate more flowers, then hell, I'm all for it.
Except if the source of that sweet, sweet sugar is more convenient to the hive than the flowers (and it would have to be, if it is intended to help the bees get to the flowers) then why go to the flowers?
It's like saying, I'm hungry but the McDonalds is too far away. So I'll stop at the Burger Kind on the way. Only after stopping at Burger King, there's no need to go to McDonalds.
I'm guessing if such assistance to the bees becomes widespread, fewer flowers will be pollinated.
Many people keep seeing bees on the ground and assume they are dead, but chances are they are having a rest
I don't see them on the ground but they seem to collect in my lawn mower's grass catcher.
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Trolling is a art,
...the great UK honey bee diabetes epidemic of 2010.
I really hate being right in advance all the time.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes. I'm sure bees crave it too.
They are, while not quite as conclusive, there has been a decline in populations, and resources are being applied to monitor the situation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder#UK_Bee_database
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
Until we start wondering why our honey is giving us a crazed, caffeine-infused high. Remember, honey is basically bee vomit. Also, if Red Bull gives you wings, what does it give bees?
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That, and you'll end up with an army of ants swarming the sugary concoction. Pretty much all insects will find it tasty.
A simple trick from hummingbird feeders is to have a cup of water the ants would have to swim through to get to the nectar, likea so. Ants can't swim, so they can't get to it. Okay, some species can form ant-bridges to cross water. Hopefully those kind aren't around where you're keeping your bees. :)
This is obviously a plot by the Society of Birds to make more food for their feathered friends.
Maybe! Certainly hummingbirds will like the sugar water as much as bees do.
Here's another trick that would probably work if you are only interested in attracting bees to your feeder: Paint it yellow. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, not so much to yellow. That's why hummingbird feeders are red. Some though have yellow "flowers", and I've learned that you should avoid those if you don't want bees and wasps on your feeder because they like yellow. Flip that around, and you have a feeder that should attract bees (and wasps) but not hummingbirds.
The enemies of Democracy are
Just like with Hummingbird feeders, if you do this I recommend dis-infecting your container periodically by boiling (or use disposable containers).
Otherwise, you eventually have microbial contamination problems which could be dangerous to the bees you're trying to help. Growth of yeasts, bacteria, and other organisms should not be assumed to be necessarily visible to the naked eye, either.
.. but if you prefer something more aggressive than passive, you can't beat tennis racket bug zappers. Keeps the kids off the xbox for hours.
I will start feeling benevolent towards these insects once laws are enacted that disallow the posession of both wings and a stinger.
It should be illegal to have both. FOR GOD'S SAKE PICK ONE!!!
Maybe! Certainly hummingbirds will like the sugar water as much as bees do.
Not a problem in Britain
Here's another trick that would probably work if you are only interested in attracting bees to your feeder: Paint it yellow. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, not so much to yellow.
But yellow may attract a flock of song chavs or a legless tree asbo.
A cure for "Colony Collapse Disorder" has recently been announced. It turns out (after an exhaustive study, in more ways that one), that there were a combination of microorganisms causing the problem. And it takes a mix of antibiotics to cure it, but it does work. The recovery has been pretty dramatic.
Everybody here is missing the point. Let me tell you something about bees.
Bees have "scouts" that go out looking for nectar. When they encounter a good patch of flowers, they fly back to the hive, and they do a "dance" that communicates to the other bees the direction AND the distance to this patch of nectar. Other worker bees then "fuel up" with just enough honey to fly the indicated distance. (I know that it seems unlikely that bees are capable of such organization, but this much has been known for decades.)
On rare occasions, the "directions" can be wrong, or some other problem happens, and a bee does not find the correct patch of flowers. In such cases, the bee can become "exhausted" (it has used up its store of honey). An exhausted bee cannot fly! As mentioned by OP, in fact, people often mistake them for dead. So ANYTHING hanging is not going to do these bees any good.
After having read about this as a child, I tried it on a bee that I found outside and originally took for dead. But then it did move a little. I gave it a sugar+water solution to drink, and a couple of minutes later it flew off. I have repeated this experiment many times, and it has not failed me yet. Except when the bee was actually dead.