Have I hurt the bee?

SmallEnglish

Hello! Another bee question!

I was watering my plants last night and realised that I soaked a poor little bumble bee that was busy in my chive plant. He seemed to fly off okay, if a little wobbly looking!

Do you think I have done any harm? I feel really guilty that I've hurt the bee or made him lose all the pollen he's collected...

aliasojo

SmallEnglish wrote: »

Do you think I have done any harm? I feel really guilty that I've hurt the bee or made him lose all the pollen he's collected...

You may have given him a little shock because you didn't give him time to throw on his stripey raincoat, but I'm sure he'll be fine. Bees have been rained on before and they still seem to happily fly about afterwards.

Penelope_Penguin

SmallEnglish wrote: »

Hello! Another bee question!

I was watering my plants last night and realised that I soaked a poor little bumble bee that was busy in my chive plant. He seemed to fly off okay, if a little wobbly looking!

Do you think I have done any harm? I feel really guilty that I've hurt the bee or made him lose all the pollen he's collected...

Alisojo has said it all I'll move this to the Greenfingered Board and merge it with your earlier bee question.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Meepster

Anyone else tempted to report the OP to the RSPCI?

baby_fuzz

SmallEnglish wrote: »

Hello! Another bee question!

I was watering my plants last night and realised that I soaked a poor little bumble bee that was busy in my chive plant. He seemed to fly off okay, if a little wobbly looking!

Do you think I have done any harm? I feel really guilty that I've hurt the bee or made him lose all the pollen he's collected...

I don't know if you have done the bee any harm, but I just thought I should post a reply to let you know that you have really made my day. Partly because it's a funny thing to lose sleep over, but also because that there are such kind-hearted people in the world!:D

RAS

SE

Your bee will be fine.

Since you are obviously kind to them, there are a couple of pointers.

1. Sadly bumbles have the excruciating knack of drowning themselves in fairly shallow water. It may be that I have white buckets, but after any rain, I get drownded bumbles which is heart wrenching. I try not to leave containers with water in them around to reduce the numbers of corpses.

2. bumbles are quite friendly and need homes. One set made merry with my compost bin last year. I did not even notice until I accidently blocked the entrance when clearing out the compost. They were pretty cool about it considering and eventually let me clear the obstruction, so I could work round them (feet and inches from several dozen flying bumbles). Another plotter had a mini nest in straw.

So if you like bumbles consider finding somewhere to put dry strawy material that they might decide to make a home (say a large plant pot filled with leaves and dried weeds). Somewhere where they can fly in and out without flying through a few humans preferably. They may well honour you.

It is also quite fun to learn about different bumbles. The standards are the white tailed (yellow and black stripes with a white bum, red tailed (with a black body), buff tailed (which I thought were white tailed with grubby bums at first) and the common carder bees. There are a dozen more around as well but they are the most common.

rosie383

I also love this thread. I find myself digging on the allotment and apologising to all the worms I cut in half, or even disturb. The kids think I'm mad, but I don't care.

wayne1983

I get them in the polytunnel and i always get them out on something then put them on the strawberrys, bees dont bother me, wasps im more wary of!:o

SmallEnglish

Aww thanks for all the replies!

aliasojo Thanks for the reassurance!

baby_fuzz I'm glad I made your day It is a funny thing to worry about I guess, my boyfriend always laughs at me, but I was really worried!

RAS Thanks for the bee tips, I am trying to make the garden bee-friendly so that was really helpful

rosie I apologise to worms too! Although I think I would probably cry if I cut one in half :eek:

icecreamdogpark

baby_fuzz wrote: »

I don't know if you have done the bee any harm, but I just thought I should post a reply to let you know that you have really made my day. Partly because it's a funny thing to lose sleep over, but also because that there are such kind-hearted people in the world!:D

I agree !!:)

icecreamdogpark

RAS wrote: »

SE

Your bee will be fine.

Since you are obviously kind to them, there are a couple of pointers.

1. Sadly bumbles have the excruciating knack of drowning themselves in fairly shallow water. It may be that I have white buckets, but after any rain, I get drownded bumbles which is heart wrenching. I try not to leave containers with water in them around to reduce the numbers of corpses.

2. bumbles are quite friendly and need homes. One set made merry with my compost bin last year. I did not even notice until I accidently blocked the entrance when clearing out the compost. They were pretty cool about it considering and eventually let me clear the obstruction, so I could work round them (feet and inches from several dozen flying bumbles). Another plotter had a mini nest in straw.

So if you like bumbles consider finding somewhere to put dry strawy material that they might decide to make a home (say a large plant pot filled with leaves and dried weeds). Somewhere where they can fly in and out without flying through a few humans preferably. They may well honour you.

It is also quite fun to learn about different bumbles. The standards are the white tailed (yellow and black stripes with a white bum, red tailed (with a black body), buff tailed (which I thought were white tailed with grubby bums at first) and the common carder bees. There are a dozen more around as well but they are the most common.

That was great to read i have made insect/bee hotels in a very small wicker cd rack 1 compartment stuffed with straw ,1 with rolled up corregated cardboard ,1 with lots of drinking straw ends facing outwards.Am thinking of hanging it under the over hang of our roof next to the kitchen,but not sure how high to put it?:)