Tiny saw another Lucy Bee grounded on the patio. This happened before, I think I only posted it on my deviant art. This time I knew what the problem was, so I got B to help me tip her into a tub, and we took her inside to warm up. We’ve had hot weather for a few days, followed by cooler overcast days. So we kept her in the kitchen in the tub with some honey, and she kept buzzing, only one of the grown ups decided that bees belong outdoors and threw the tub out. Tiny said literally threw, but I don’t think so.

So we smuggled her back inside and hid her on the attic stairs. But when we checked a few hours later, she wasn’t buzzing anymore. And we held the tub up to the light and she wasn’t moving either. We thought she might have died. We decided the best thing was to take her back out and if she was dead, we could give her a burial. We took the tub out, and B had a peek and she was still moving a little, so I got The Chipmunk to tip her out near the straw pile. And she started walking away.

The next morning, I had a look near the straw pile, but I couldn’t see any sign of her. When B got back from school, he went out in the garden and found two more bees, and he’d put them in the same tub we’d put Lucy. One might have been Lucy, I don’t know.

I was worried they might be fighting in there, I don’t know how bee society works, but one seemed to be going after the other. The weaker one was barely moving. We called one Lucy and one Queenie, after Queenie in Animal Crossing DS.

I got B to tip the active one into the lid, and we gave them some feverfew flowers and sugar water in a bottle lid. The weaker one was gripping onto the bottle lid, but didn’t seem to be moving. We thought she was dying, and all the grown ups said so, but it shows how much they know.

We put the cage feeder around them in case any birds or animals got any ideas (you never know) and left them for a while. Later, I caught Lucy escaping on the patio, so we put her in another tub. All I could find was a foil container. I was worried it would be too glary, but we didn’t have anything else steep enough.

Then the sun came out, so we quickly put both the tubs in the sunny patch in the flower bed, and Lucy started jumping about and buzzing, but Queenie wasn’t moving still. Later I checked, and Lucy was gone, so she must have warmed up enough to fly away. Queenie was still weak, and it was getting late. We didn’t want her trapped in the tub all night with no shelter, so I got The Chipmunk to put the tub on its side near the straw pile, so she could walk out. The next morning, she was gone, and it was sunny and warm that day, so I hope she warmed up enough to fly away.