When bees fly out to find food for their hive, they don’t always make it back. They can get fatigued, sometimes to the point where they are unable to keep going. If this happens, they simply wait to die.
I found one such bee on a windowsill. Immobile, unable to respond with more than slight twitches of its legs when provoked. I gave it liquid honey. It drank for several minutes, rested for half an hour and left. Maybe it survived, made it back to the hive.
I hope so.
Was the bee’s life worth my 5 minutes?
On the one hand, I would not want to spend 5 minutes for every bee that becomes exhausted and nearly dies, even within a 10 mile radius of my home.
On the other hand, keeping bees alive is a prominent environmental cause, and letting one die feels like analogous to ignoring the plight of the bees.
It seems to me that I was right to save the bee, and that I should find ways to maximise the amount of bees I can efficiently save.
Time to look into urban gardening!