Help Please

[user 22611]

Hi I’m in the U.K. and hope you can help me regarding the bumblebee I found on Tuesday. It was on the floor so I picked it up to pop it on a flower out of the way of people walking but it would not get off me. I tried various flowers but long story short it wouldn’t leave me and ended up coming home with me.

I set it up in an outdoor flowerpot with my new bee box, some water in a dish with marbles and some dandelions. Come night I put in an overturned flowerpot with a door cut in and pegged a towel to the pot with an entry gap.

I really didn’t expect it to make it through the morning least of all until next day and then on today but here we are.

I can’t see any wing damage but it can’t seem to fly and when it has dropped out of the pot just walks everywhere and it worries me how vulnerable it is on the ground.

Am I doing all the right things? I keep replenishing dandelions and also have given a daisy and a cowslip.

 

[Wilco]

If she can't fly it's probably kinder to not let her suffer. There's a chance she's low on energy so you could make some sugar water and see if she flies after drinking some but if she still can't then she's not going to be able to forage to raise young.

 

[user 22611]

Thank you for your reply. I have offered sugar water but she doesn’t seem interested. Should I move her to somewhere covered and leave it at that? It makes me sad to think of her being stepped on.

 

[user 22611]

 

[ericbeaumont]

help me regarding the bumblebee

Good of you to take care of her, Melanie. There may be an underlying reason for her sluggish behaviour, as warmth and sugar water would normally get them flying again.

If you would like to find out more, check out the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust, which has a page called What to do if you find a bumblebee during winter or in bad weather.

 

[user 22611]

Thank you for the link. She’s pretty fast on the ground but even though I’ve seen her wings buzzing she doesn’t take off.