The bees are in trouble again. If you see one that is exhausted give them a sugar-water mixture which will give them the energy boost they need to get back to the hive. You probably saw this advice on Facebook where it was first posted, and then shared thousands of times. You have just experienced the birth of a new gardening myth.
The image below shows part of the original Facebook post.
Around the middle of July, 2018, the BBC asked Facebook to remove the post since it was fake news, and thankfully, they complied. In fact, I had a hard time finding a copy for this post.
What did Sir David Attenborough really say? Is it a good idea to feed sugar to bees? Do bees get exhausted and need our help? All good questions that will be discussed in this post.
A Garden Myth is Born
I don’t know who started the myth, but someone created it on their Facebook page – anyone can do that. They then posted it on some public sites and people shared the post. After all, everybody cares about the bees and we don’t want to die in 4 years.
The post went viral. I saw it on several gardening groups and right away people posted that they would do this – it is the least they could do to save the bee. People even posted pictures of bees drinking from spoons containing water and sugar.
I wonder if the author of this myth is sitting in front of their computer, laughing their head off?
One of the problems with this post is that they included the name, Sir David Attenborough, a well known broadcaster and naturalist. The BBC looked into the matter and determined it was all fake news, so they asked Facebook to take down the post. They not only removed the original post, but many of the shared posts have also disappeared.
Thank you Facebook.
As far as I can tell Sir David Attenborough never said anything about bees and feeding them sugar.
What Is The Harm in a Little Fun?
It seems like no big deal, but it is more serious that you might think.
Millions of people have now seen the information and they believe you should feed bees. Very few will see my post and other news items that dispel the myth. They will go on believing the myth, and for next 100 years they will be telling their children and grand children to feed the bees. You can’t kill a myth once it starts.
Does feeding bees with sugar water do any harm? Yes it does. I’ll discuss several issues in more detail below, but a serious problem is that some people can’t follow instructions. They have morphed the myth into a better solution; feed the bees with honey and that can be deadly for bees.
Are Bees Dying?
The post says “In the last 5 years the bee population has dropped by 1/3”. Which bee population are they talking about? Honey bees? Native bees?
Honey bee populations have not declined over the last 5 years. There were larger loss than normal this past winter in North America, but that was due to the cold weather. Overall honey bee populations are on the rise.
Native bee populations are probably down, but we don’t have data to reach any conclusion.
The data used in the post is completely fabricated.
Without Bees We Die in Four Years
Honey bees are not dying – the numbers are on the increase, and since they are farmed animals we can make more new hives without too much trouble.
Even if all the bees died, we would still have other food to eat. This 4 year thing is nonsense.
Do Bees Need To Be Fed?
Beekeepers do feed their hives in the middle of winter if the stored food in the hive runs out, and they do use sugar solutions. But this is done because there are no flowers open at this time of year to feed the bees. They don’t normally feed sugar water to bees during the rest of the year.
If the bees’ foraging trips are so exhausting don’t you think that beekeepers would have a bowl of sugar water waiting for them at the hive?
They don’t need an extra feeding of sugar.
Why Do Some Bees Look Exhausted?
There are lots of reports of bees just sitting. No movement and no flying – they look exhausted. They must need an energy boost!
Bees don’t live forever. Their lifespan depends on the type of bee and their role in life. Worker honey bees that are born in the spring only live for 6 weeks because they work hard collecting pollen and nectar. Male bumblebees only live a couple of weeks. A bee that is near the end of its life does not fly around very well.
That bee that looks exhausted may need a rest, but there is a very good chance that it is dying. Feeding it won’t change that.
One Beekeeper put it this way,”Bees can and will die from exhaustion, but making sugary food sources available to save lethargic bees may be doing more damage than good.”
Can a Little Sugar Water Harm The Bees?
Bees don’t need to be fed, but feeding them a bit of sugar water from a spoon won’t do any harm provided this is a one time thing. The problem is that people have expanded on the myth. If a bit of sugar water for an exhausted bee is good, then a lot of sugar water for all the bees must be better. People are starting to leave out bowls full of the stuff, or even adding it to their bird baths.
Beekeepers warn that this can have serious consequences. Bees take short cuts. If they can get sugar easily from a bowl rather than visiting a hundred flowers, they will do that. Upon returning to the hive they’ll tell their buddies and the rest of the colony to do the same. Before you know it, you have hundreds of bees.
Not a big deal you say, but the bees store this sugar water in the hive along with the honey. They effectively make watered down honey. That is not good for the bees and nobody wants to buy watered down honey. Beekeepers are asking you not to do this.
What is Wrong With Feeding Honey To Bees?
Honey can contain spores of a bacteria called Paenibacillus which causes AFD (American Foul Brood disease). It is deadly to bees. The honey you feed to the bee will be taken back to the hive. If your honey contains this pathogen, there is a good chance it will infect the whole hive. In Australia it is illegal to feed honey to bees.
The treatment for this disease is to burn the whole hive, including the bees.
The disease is fairly rare, but it does happen. Honey should never be fed to bees in your garden.
Thanks for the great website, which I just found. I know that it is possible for bees to get drunk, and I occasionally see wild bees wandering around on the ground, looking much as I often did while attending university. Is it possible this is because they over-indulged?
Good question – don’t know the answer.
Consider posting on our Facebook Group and someone may know the answer. https://www.facebook.com/groups/GardenFundamentals/
I understand everything you say about not feeding bees. I was fooled by Facebook posts and because I told friends and they knew of your work I took them down. I don’t know about the accuracy or not of the time scale in the without bees people will die thing. But is it not a fact that all sorts of pollinators, mainly but not just bees, are seriously affected by pesticides. At the very least they disrupt the insects’navigation systems. There are major political battles going on about this in Europe. i don’t know about North America. It is in the interests are huge companies in the main based in the USA to promote the view that he’s are doing fine. I doubt it. And serious depleted pollinator population will definitely have a negative impact on people. This also needs to be factor into the growing view that we need to eat less meat and more fruit and veg so we need more pollinators.
No doubt bees are harmed by some pesticides – but to what degree is the issue. Colony collapse in most cases is not due to pesticides.
i wish you would talk more about bumblebees in this post. surely people are much more likely to see them “struggling”. the fact that you haven’t talked about them much makes it sound like this isn’t really a “myth” at all when applied to them?
so, what is the harm in feeding sugar to bumblebees? is it comparable?
thanks.
I don’t think bumblebees are any different. This is from http://www.bumblebee.org/helpbees.htm
“The bumblebee is either sick, too old or too cold to fly. If it is sick or infected with a parasite then I’m afraid there is not much that can be done. However if you find a grounded bumblebee early in the year, just at the start of the first warmer days, then it is probably a queen. She may have been caught out in a sudden shower or a cold spell. If the temperature of the thorax falls below 30 oC the bumblebee cannot take off (see temperature regulation). The best thing you can do it pick her up using a piece of paper or card, put her somewhere warmer, and feed her. When she has warmed and fed she will most likely fly off”
I don’t condone ever feeding bees honey for several reasons and discourage anyone ever doing this, but I do have a question.
You mention that honey can carry spores of American Foul Brood, do these spores survive the heating process that most store bought honey goes through?
I don’t know.
I know that botulism spores do. But you shouldn’t use store bought honey anyway because it is often cut with cheap corn syrup and fillers. Don’t use pure, raw honey either. AFB spores can last 80 years in dormancy.
so appreciate your time and knowledge to share this info
“Honey bees are not dying – the numbers are on the increase, and since they are farmed animals we can make more new hives without too much trouble.”
Unfortunately hives in France and soon the UK are being decimated by an invasion of Asian Hornets. The hornets prey on honeybees, hovering like attack helicopters outside their hives and grabbing them on the wing. The bees are dismembered before being carried back to the hornets’ nest to be fed to larvae.
There are no known predators in Europe for the hornet.
Do you have some data to show that the number of hives are declining?
Robert, lots of British experts have spoken extensively in the past five years about the decimated bee population in the UK. It’s been widely publicised over here
You have to be careful about which bees they talk about. Most reports I see are about honey bees, and their population is not going down. Native bee populations are declining for some species, but for most we don’t have the data to confirm this one way or another – but loss of habitat is almost certainly having an effect. https://www.gardenmyths.com/native-bees-dying/
I did not see this “Attenborough” post, but there was another, complete with video, which suggested helping newly emerged bumblebee queens knocked flat by abnormally cold spring temperatures. The video showed a bee sitting on someone’s finger while licking drops of warm sugar water from another finger. I didn’t see any harm in that, so I reposted it.
Bad idea?
Here is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/claire.fielding.31/videos/10157352878854126/
Feeding an individual bee is not a problem. Keeping a bowl out all of the time is.
I would have think about the question; what has sugar done for/to us? In isolated incidents it might help an individual but it will ruin bee species if used with any frequency. I would suggest it better if it were never done.
Thanks for your article.
Hi Robert, I live in the south of England, this is not a new idea/myth, my dad showed me this over 50 years ago, but, only for bumblebees, not honey bees. Also not from a spoon – that’s just daft! A drop of water on the patio, where they’re usually found struggling in hot weather, with a few grains of sugar. If the bee needs it it will take some, soon recover and be on his happy way. Regards, Julie
What about bumblebees?
Do you have a question about them?
Awesome information, I’m gone have to copy this post into my instagram account. Hopefully, educating a few of my other fellows and bringing awareness of the harm this can cause. Once again, thank you for the information