Considering changing health to stamina and making you fall to the ground if you run out so you never 'die' but you have to sit around for a bit. This would be combined with putting in a timer so you have to reach the end of the level before nightfall (when bees can't fly around) which would be the 'game over' condition ... what do you think ?
I think that could be interesting, maybe give players some way to bypass or mitigate this effect - having to sit doing nothing isn't very fun, but losing/gaining speed or collecting buffs feels engaging. Having the stamina affect speed sounds cool, then the player would directly feel the effects of their good/bad play through the game movement.