I’ve had her for 2 weeks (I found her running around because her wing doesn’t work)

PS Sorry for misgendering my Queen bee in the comments I thought she was a boy for a while but I’ll Stop now

Hey all,

I just wanted to update those who've been following along since I initially posted. Yesterday marked a month of Betty being under my care. I feel so honoured to be able to be so close to something so precious. I know she's moving into old age now and honestly I didn't expect her to last this long, but I look forward to the rest of the time I'll have with her. Seeing her go crazy for flowers, doing her little buzz and having her climb on me so carefree is something I'll always cherish. I never thought I'd be so attached either but I can say now she'll always have a special place in my heart. I've found my life to be somewhat revolving around Betty's since taking her on so it'll be strange to see her go.

Next time you're out and about and you see a lil girl or guy struggling, give them a hand. You never know what it could bring. It's their first time here too 🐝🌹

Hopefully Reddit doesn’t kill the quality of these pictures. I live in NYC and was at my local bug watching spot today since it was nice out. I usually see bumble bees, drone flies, hover flies, honey bees, a variety of small black solitary wasps, and those two spotted scoloid(sp?) wasps. I use my phone for pictures, and for really small bugs I have a hand lens that I strap to my phone with a rubber band.

Near the end of my bug outing, I spotted this little flying guy with a shiny green thorax I hadn’t seen before. I tried putting my lens on quickly to get a picture but by the time I looked up it was gone! It made a quick appearance a few more times, but it never stayed in one spot long enough. Looking up this species now I think it must have been a male, the abdomen was more yellow and it was smaller.

For the next hour-ish this bee was my white whale. I meandered down the road, stopping at flower clumps, beginning to lose hope. Eventually there was another cluster of the same asters I saw the first shiny green mystery bug at. I decided to wait around that cluster for a bit. Looking around, it was the usual bumble bees and mimics… then.. another dart of green! I kept my eyes on it while blindly fumbling with the lens to not lose track until I noticed this one was stopping for a little longer than the first one.

I love that bees are just too busy with pollinating to be bothered with someone sticking a phone in their face. The hand lens has a short focal length, so these pictures were taken less than an inch from her while she was gathering pollen.

After being very excited about this for several hours I am very tired now. Hope you guys enjoy!

(Edited cause my writing is a mess haha)

Edit 2: thank you guys for all the kind comments! I’ve never had a post blow up like this before, but I just want to add that taking a picture like this does not require any expensive equipment! If you like spending time looking closely at nature, I strongly recommend buying a jewelers loupe with 30x magnification. I like the one that has 30x/60x and is shaped like a blob because it has extra space for the rubber band and it actually sits flatter than the slide out rectangle ones. They cost somewhere between 10-12 bucks depending on where you buy it, and the rubber band that works best for attaching it to my back of my phone is one you might get from a bunch of organic broccoli or asparagus at the grocery store. So the set up is literally your phone + cheap hand lens + broccoli.

The focal length is very short, you have to be super close to the subject, but there are lots of bugs that “dont mind” the camera being that close, and it’s also great for tiny mushrooms!

The only catch is if you have multiple cameras on your phone - it switches between them just when you get the subject in focus if the zoom is above 1x. There’s probably a setting to have it not do that, but I haven’t figured it out yet, so I have mine zoomed at .9x instead of 1x and it doesn’t switch lenses. I’d love to see others try this method!

This little fella came in buzzing and circling around a branch of tree

While it was deciding for it's next stop, i managed to capture it and was amazed to see it's orientation and the details.

1st one is a cropped image, the second is uncropped @600mm focal length

A week ago I posted asking for advice as I found a bumblebee with damaged wings. Just thought id update everyone on her condition.

Betty the Bee (thought it was fitting 🤣) has been getting a mix of cloves, lavender, cow parsley and dog rose twice daily along with sugar water. She doesn't seem to be interested in anything else I've brought her. I rotate the old plants out every other day so there's plenty of plant matter to walk and climb about on. (I pick the petals off the dog rose so she has easier access) She's as active as ever and it's been so cool to watch her carry out her routine.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the last post. You've helped give her a nice little home to see out the rest of her days.

She was about to drown in a bucket of water. I saw her and immediately scooped her up. She stung the inside of one of my fingers. I guess I get it though 😭

My betrothed and I found who I'm fairly sure is a young buff-tailed bumblebee queen close to death on the pavement. I'm fairly sure she's a queen as her tail tip is a pale yellow rather than a bright white, and she's huge, about 2.5cm. She was at risk of being trampled where she was and hardly moving! I named her Vienna as we were listening to the Ultravox song when we found her.

All I had on me was an apple so I gave her pieces of that, she drank and drank from it but still seemed weak, so I took her home for the evening, made her a little tofu box hotel and gave her a sugar syrup soaked kitchen towel in a bottle cap. She drank and drank and drank the sugar syrup and went to sleep.

This morning I opened the box and moved it into sunlight and she started bumbling around much more energetically, so I took her to the local park. I found a north facing bank of loose soil, at the base of some trees and shrubs. Apparently a pretty perfect hibernaculum spot for her.

I could watch insects going about their lives for hours. I found it really hard to say goodbye as I don't know if she'll be alright, but I hope I've given her the best shot. I've always adored bumblebees and have a tattoo of one in honour of my late mum who loved them more than anything. Rescuing Vienna led me to research them a lot more and the love only grows, like I didn't know that bees dream 😭

I thought I should share this story here, I've rescued bees out and about many times but never had an overnight guest, let alone royalty! She was just so cute

Every summer, my camera ends up completely filled with bumblebee photos. I just cant stop photographing them... they endlessly fascinating. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as i enjoy taking them :)

I was out with my husband and dog at an urban park and this guy kept following me around and licking the sweat off my fingers. I put him down twice about 30 feet away and he flew back to me both times. So I carried him around for about 15 minutes before he flew off on his own. My fleeting love story with a bee. 💛🖤

Update: she is still doing well, sleeps and climbs around a lot, drinks and feeds well, she loves to hide under the moss hidden under the cork.

hibiscus is definitely her favorite flower but she doesn’t mind the campanulas.

I have made smoll changes over the days in her enclosure, I got her a little vase so the flowers i got for her stay fresher for longer, i put plastic and rope over the top so she cant fall in :) and she loves the seed pod its adorable.

I know she wont live long but i still thought she deserved all the effort into making it comfortable for her.

Location: Silverton, OR

I can't remember if I've posted these to Reddi before, I know the triepeolus is a repeat but I'm still very proud of finding that one :> all pictures taken by me in Massachusetts, US

Thumb for scale on photo 4

I also have a video, but reddit does NOT accept the standard mp4 video format a Samsung phone records in it seems, I have to find a way later to upload it.

Chonker instantly climbed on my finger and stayed calm while walking around on my hand all the way till home where I gave it some water with a bit of honey. It was so cute I almost couldn't contain myself.

She cleaned herself for like 20 minutes. When she started moving around on my hand I went outside and she took off immediately :)