So yesterday I went out to check on my beehive – something felt off when I heard that angry buzzing sound. Popped the lid and oh man, found these poor bees all twisted up near the entrance. Legs and wings tangled like Christmas lights after being stuffed in the attic. Panic mode activated immediately! Had no clue how this happened – maybe they fought, maybe they got stuck during hive inspection. Didn’t matter. Needed to fix it fast.
Grabbed my gloves and smoker first like any dumb beginner would. Puffed some smoke near them, thinking it’d calm ‘em down. Big mistake. They just got more frantic, twisting tighter like a knot. One even snapped its wing trying to struggle free. Felt awful watching it. Then I tried using tweezers like an idiot – nearly crushed two bees before stopping myself. This wasn’t working at all.
Took a breath, stepped back, and remembered old Mrs. Henderson’s advice from the beekeeping club. Ran to my kitchen, mixed sugar water in a spray bottle – one part sugar, three parts warm water. No fancy measurements, just eyeballed it. Spritzed a gentle mist over the tangled cluster. Not too much! Just enough to make their wings slippery. Waited two minutes. Saw them start licking the sugar off each other, slowly loosening up. Used a dry twig to nudge the last few apart. Boom. Five minutes later, they crawled away fine. One even buzzed near my hand like it was saying thanks.
What Worked
- Quit poking them with tools
- Made sugar water fast
- Light spray – no drowning
- Let them untangle themselves
Funny thing – this mess reminded me of when I first started gardening last summer. Pulled up carrots so hard the tops snapped off. Same dumb rush to fix things. Sometimes sitting back helps more than muscle. Wish I’d known the sugar trick back then too. Anyway, if your bees ever twist up, don’t freak out like me. Keep the spray bottle handy. Feels good learning from fails.
