Couple earn their stripes by saving dying queen bee

A COUPLE went the extra mile when they found a queen bee dying outside their home .... they nursed it back to full health and released it into the wild.

Gwyn Owen, 30, and girlfriend Victoria discovered the poorly insect on their patio.

The couple, from Chorlton, decided to give the bee some sugared water to help boost its energy to fly away.

But the following day the bee, nicknamed Peter, was looking worse for wear and was struggling to move from the pavement.

The couple made the decision to bring Peter inside and help nurse it to full health, as they wanted to help prevent the decline of the bee population. They continued to give the creature sugared water and even ‘Peter’ the bee is nursed back to health comfortably held Peter on their hand, without risking a sting.

The bee stayed in the house overnight with some sugared water and a bunch of flowers. By the next day Peter was looking healthy again and ready to fly in the wild.

After a bit of research, Gwyn realised Peter is probably a queen bee and was searching for a place to nest to start a colony.

Gwyn, a PE teacher at New Horizons in Warrington, brought the bee to a garden space at the school in a special box with air holes in the hope it would find somewhere to nest.

He said: “Being animal lovers and knowing how important the role bees play in our ecosystem is, we decided to dedicate our Sunday to turning this girl’s fortunes around.

“So we brought her in, cared for her, clothed and bathed her and basically treated her like our own child.

“As time went on and she started to clean herself and slowly began to dry off and started to make a full recovery, her hair starting to look cool and fluffy again and running up and down my arm.”

Gwyn shared images of the bee rescue on social media sites and the couple were praised by dozens of people for helping nurture the bee back to life.

One Facebook user commented: “Good on you for reviving this little fella, I meet too many people who don’t know this happens to bees or how to rectify it.”