Bees.

Lorcan

Lorcan

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Not for the first time I've cursed myself for not having sugar in the house, but y'know. I'll remember next time.

She was about the size of my fingertip and just...on the ground. I actually thought she was dead at first, but no, she was with it enough to get onto my fingertip. I have no sugar, honey's all I got. Not great, don't give bees honey, but the stuff I have has mostly crystallised so there wasn't much "liquid" to worry about. Has anyone ever had an insect eating off their finger? It's the weirdest sensation. Not bad, unless you're weird about small insect legs.

Honey got her mostly back to it, but I was outside with no shoes on and there was rain imminent, so I popped her back on top of my mini brown bin, where she has since left. Seriously though don't give bees honey, only reason I risked it was I actually took her into the house with me to get something from the kitchen and she barely moved, barely reacted to anything. Desperate times and all that.
 
My neighbors have beehives near my house and I get so many bees in my front yard! Sadly, I am quite allergic, so I have to be careful. 🥺
 
I'm allergic to wasp stings, so I might be allergic to bees? I avoid wasps and hornets like the plague, but I have a massive soft spot for bees. If I'm picking one up from the ground (there's at least one instance every year) they're usually too exhausted to do anything and they're pretty chill anyway. They'll only harm me if they feel threatened. She only buzzed at me once, and that was after she'd perked up and I was trying to get her to walk off my finger lol, can't blame her really.

I've no idea where her hive might be. My garden's an absolute mess but there's foxgloves all over and the bees love it.
 
I'm allergic to wasp stings but not bees. Not that I want either! We have lots of bees in the garden too.
 
Yeah I don't really want to know for definite with bees, but also I've never really felt at risk of being stung by one either. Wasps and hornets are angry, bees are generally pretty relaxed in comparison. There was another couple of bees the past few weeks that look like they've been trodden on or run over by a bin - probably not maliciously, the path's not particularly wide, but I thought that's what had happened with this one at first but also why I wanted her to go back somewhere that wasn't going to lead to death by foot, lol.

Part of me wonders where the hive is. It can't be that far off, but that probably means it's in a garden somewhere.
 
I've been stung by bee twice, it hurts! A few years ago a wasp went down my sleeve. It was stinging me but I couldn't get it out without getting my jumper off which meant it stung me more. My arm swelled up rather a lot and was painful for weeks. I dread that happening again.
We have those burrowing bees in a patch of the garden, they have been there for years, I leave it undisturbed! We get honey bees, I guess they have a hive in a garden nearby. We also get quite a lot of bumble bees, they are the ones that often seem to need reviving here. I plant as many flowers they like as possible for them. They love the chive flowers, this year I left some purple sprouting in to go to flower, the bees really love that.
 
I know I had a burrowing bee last year, I don't know if I saw one again this year but I may have done, I tend to leave them be. Last year they were under the flags so I wasn't going to see much anyway. Other than that, it's various species of bumblebees. I've seen one honeybee that I know of but otherwise it's bumblebees everywhere and I'm 95% positive I've seen at least two different species. Which is why I'm so torn about the garden, yes it needs clearing but also, bees. They're there all day, from one or two to 10 or more at a time.
Some of the foxgloves are taller than me, though. I should pull them. But I like bees too much.
 
I don't know where these came from, but they've covered most of the available square ft in my garden lol.
 
I don't even know how they got there in the first place lol, but even as I was taking the photo the bees were in and out. How could I possibly take that away from them, lol.
 
Lorcan said:
I can't believe I'm admitting to how bad this looks but, still. Bee haven.

View attachment 227015
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Perfect bee territory and well done for rescuing one Lorcan.

Most bees we actually see in our garden are not honey bees at all.
They tend to be various species of solitary bees which do look similar - honey bees are much rarer unless you happen to live near someone with hives. They don't actually fly that far so hopefully most of what you are seeing are solitary bees that won't sting anyway.
Having said that it is getting late in the year for solitary bees so who knows.
But well done for saving one anyway.
 
Lorcan said:
I'm allergic to wasp stings, so I might be allergic to bees? I avoid wasps and hornets like the plague, but I have a massive soft spot for bees. If I'm picking one up from the ground (there's at least one instance every year) they're usually too exhausted to do anything and they're pretty chill anyway. They'll only harm me if they feel threatened. She only buzzed at me once, and that was after she'd perked up and I was trying to get her to walk off my finger lol, can't blame her really.

I've no idea where her hive might be. My garden's an absolute mess but there's foxgloves all over and the bees love it.
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Possibly but not necessarily. 18 months ago I was stung at the top of my leg by a late autumn wasp that crawled up inside my trousers (it was quite a sight, me dancing up and down whilst pulling off my trousers as fast as I could - then putting my head round the wall to check for passers-by before running trouserless to the side door). It made my arms go all heavy and I felt a bit woozy for a while, and the swelling took days to go. But, a couple of months ago I was stung by a honeybee from our hive, right behind my ear, without any reaction at all.

BTW, why do you say don't give bees honey?
 
Swissgreys said:
They tend to be various species of solitary bees which do look similar - honey bees are much rarer unless you happen to live near someone with hives. They don't actually fly that far so hopefully most of what you are seeing are solitary bees that won't sting anyway.
Having said that it is getting late in the year for solitary bees so who knows.
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She was, I believe, a tree bumblebee although I'm going from memory. But any bee that'll sit on my finger while I open the door, walk into the house, go to the kitchen, open cupboard doors, grab a honey bottle and go back outside...an insect should react to that and she didn't so I knew something was up.
I don't leave dishes outside for them or anything, it's a one and done thing, and only if I've found one in trouble so to speak. Age will always get a bee eventually, and I can do sod all about that, but it doesn't mean the occasional one doesn't need a helping hand. But since I can't hold a spoon without shaking it everywhere I generally end up using a fingertip and I've never felt like I was making a mistake.

Qualcast&Flymo said:
BTW, why do you say don't give bees honey?
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If it's their own honey it would be less of an issue, but this isn't. There could be something in it that causes them an issue. Kinda like not giving honey to babies because of botulism concerns, at best it's like fast food for them, at worst it's got something toxic in there.
 
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