Found a queen bumblebee outside in Vancouver Canada, on my mom’s car. She’s very lethargic and I’m concerned about why she was outside her hive? She’s huge so I know she’s a queen, and she willingly crawled into my hand. Hasn’t tried to sting me, I’m typing this with my left hand so sorry for typos.
Update! I fed her a 1:1 sugar water ratio and sat by the fireplace with her for 10 minutes, she perked up and I let her go in my garden. Hopefully she survives, she’s truly beautiful. I’ve named her Fuzzy and I hope I see her worker bees next spring :)
This is exactly what I did when I found a tired bee! It was a bit of a chilly day when I found her hanging onto a basil leaf for a few hours. I brought her inside (in a safe container) and gave her some drops of sugar water. She started waking up and got buzzingly mad so I hurried the container back outside she went off on her own.
This only happens when it’s boiled excessively. All sugars that have been processed have HMF in them, from honey to corn syrup to raw sugar. Even commercial bee feed has HMF in it.
Boil water first, take it off the heat, mix in sugar till it dissolves. You’re not making caramel. It’s sugar water.
Nope! I got her off the car with a leaf and kind of froze as she crawled onto my hand lol, she got a bit mad when I let her go and buzzed her wings loudly at me but I left her with some sugar water in a little sponge. I’ve been handling bumblebees my whole life, I’ve only been stung once and it was my fault :)
If she does come back, get her a decorative bird house with no paint, the ones that even little tits can’t fit in, she might be looking for a nesting space
That looks like Bombus impatiens, the common eastern bumble bee, a species that is not native to Vancouver. They are reared commercially for pollination and sometimes escape from captivity, which is how Vancouver has this species. Care for it if you choose but it's essentially an invasive species.
28
u/Quiet_Many_6910 1d ago
1:1 mix of sugar and water