“As you all know, honey bees are dying worldwide by the millions. As you also know, bees are a very, very important part of the ecosystem. I assume that most of you don’t use bee-killing chemicals on your fields or have a garden, so I have a simple tip on how to save dying bees, one at a time, even for people living in cities.

If you spot a dying bee (or bumble bee), don’t throw it outside or kill it. You can save that little fucker! It’s easy and often takes only a couple of minutes. Step by step:

• don’t be afraid of bees—just stay calm, they won’t hurt or attack you
• bring it into a dry place (just put it on a table or whatever)
• take a cup and mix sugar (not artificial or diet sweetener or other crap, just normal or organic sugar) with water – something like a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio, small quantities
• take a spoon and make the sugar ”dissolve”, the end result should be thicker than water and a little bit less consistent than syrup (it’s not that important)
• put a spoon of your sugar water on a dish and place the bee (use a paper to scoop it up) right next to it (not into it)
• observe the bee drink it and make sure that it doesn’t end up stuck in it (again, gently use a paper if it’s stuck and try to help it out)
• open a window and turn off bright lights

And then wait. In my experience, even half dead bees will find enough force to drink/eat some. After usually anything between 1 and 5 minutes, the bee will stop drinking, wait a moment and suddenly start flying again. If your window is open, odds are high that it will find it and fly directly out.

When I was younger I lived in the countryside and had to deal with plenty of bees. I never really thought about helping the dying ones, because they usually didn’t die due to a lack of energy (there were flowers everywhere). Now, in the city, every other day I will find such a dying bee and I found out that this method works perfectly.

There’s no point in killing animals, especially such useful ones like bees. As a side note, it’s interesting to observe them drink and it’s always a small victory when they fly away like nothing ever happened. Every bee I’ve helped with sugar water flew away in the following minutes.

Note: Also, in case anyone had any doubts, bees are not pets. As soon as they’re healthy again, give them the opportunity to fly back home.

Note: Always use sugar if available. If you don’t have any left, try honey.”

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