Nine-year-old goes viral after making motivational posters to care for injured bee

Willow McMurray found the injured bee on her family's allotment. Credit: PA

A nine-year-old girl has warmed hearts across the world after nursing an injured bee back to health with honey and motivational posters.

Willow McMurray found the bee lying on a piece of wood “on its back” at her family’s allotment in Auchendinny, a small village in Midlothian, Scotland, on Sunday.

She acted swiftly to save the injured insect, which was "very weak" by the time she came across it.

“I grabbed a container labelled chicken drumsticks and then I took my little shovel and scooped it in,” she said.

“I gave it the option of honey or sugar water, but it just chose the honey and not the sugar water.

“I did actually manage to pet the bee without it trying to attack me.”

Willow used words of motivation to encourage the bee. Credit: PA

To keep the bee's spirits high, Willow crafted tiny motivational posters for it with the words "you can do this" and "keep going".

She said: “I just felt I should try and make this bee something to keep it energised."

The bee eventually flew away, much to her dismay, as she had planned to keep it as a pet.

Her mother, Anouska Curzon, said: "She loves drawing and making comic books and posters, so this was something that was very Willow to have done.

“It was just really sweet and we were just really overwhelmed by the reaction to the story.

“It’s gone very much global and everyone seems to think it’s adorable – somebody even described it as a timeline cleanser.”

According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), a tired bee can be revived with a mixture of two teaspoons of white granulated sugar mixed with one teaspoon of water.


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