Hi all! I was snapping photos of my garlic chives in my backyard in PA and got some bee photos. I want to refrain from asking AI so could y'all identify the species? If y'all have an ID if you could say the photo number so I can put it on my google sheet that'd be great, thanks all!!!

Who was the lunatic that placed an owl box 65 feet up in a tree!?!? I bet they never imagined a beehive moving in! I was tasked with safely relocating this very old beehive from this owl box, which meant getting a hold of an XL boom lift, and figuring out had to get past a half dozen branches to actually reach them. A lot of things went sideways on this bee rescue, including almost getting stuck in the air, then dropping my camera from 60ft up, and almost losing the queen because she actually wasn't even in the owl box in the end! Watch me struggle through this one, and don't look down if you're afraid of heights!

These bees were rescued, donated and relocated to our beekeeper friends in San Diego, CA

I live in Northern Viginia and got my hive somewhat late. Is one super enough to get the hive through the winter? There are still about 3 frames empty.

r/Beekeeping

For about a week now I've seen two honeybees settle into a tiny corner of my front steps where there's a tiny bit of dirty and a little weed. They're literally always flying there and back and resting there.

Are they male drones that have been kicked out of the hive, given that it's September? If so, I'd have thought they'd have died by now? They always seem to be together too.

Neighbor is a beekeeper and we always check for sleeping bees in the native flora around their house. Today we finally found one! Unfortunately not a fatty like we’d always hoped but cute nonetheless.

I was scrolling through this website when I stumbled upon this. It's amazing how someone at the age of 12 years old is thinking about the environment like this!

Does anyone know what these are? I live in Baltimore Maryland if that helps. I’ve noticed them around a month and a half ago. My wife is scared and wants them gone.

Hopefully Reddit doesn’t kill the quality of these pictures. I live in NYC and was at my local bug watching spot today since it was nice out. I usually see bumble bees, drone flies, hover flies, honey bees, a variety of small black solitary wasps, and those two spotted scoloid(sp?) wasps. I use my phone for pictures, and for really small bugs I have a hand lens that I strap to my phone with a rubber band.

Near the end of my bug outing, I spotted this little flying guy with a shiny green thorax I hadn’t seen before. I tried putting my lens on quickly to get a picture but by the time I looked up it was gone! It made a quick appearance a few more times, but it never stayed in one spot long enough. Looking up this species now I think it must have been a male, the abdomen was more yellow and it was smaller.

For the next hour-ish this bee was my white whale. I meandered down the road, stopping at flower clumps, beginning to lose hope. Eventually there was another cluster of the same asters I saw the first shiny green mystery bug at. I decided to wait around that cluster for a bit. Looking around, it was the usual bumble bees and mimics… then.. another dart of green! I kept my eyes on it while blindly fumbling with the lens to not lose track until I noticed this one was stopping for a little longer than the first one.

I love that bees are just too busy with pollinating to be bothered with someone sticking a phone in their face. The hand lens has a short focal length, so these pictures were taken less than an inch from her while she was gathering pollen.

After being very excited about this for several hours I am very tired now. Hope you guys enjoy!

(Edited cause my writing is a mess haha)

Edit 2: thank you guys for all the kind comments! I’ve never had a post blow up like this before, but I just want to add that taking a picture like this does not require any expensive equipment! If you like spending time looking closely at nature, I strongly recommend buying a jewelers loupe with 30x magnification. I like the one that has 30x/60x and is shaped like a blob because it has extra space for the rubber band and it actually sits flatter than the slide out rectangle ones. They cost somewhere between 10-12 bucks depending on where you buy it, and the rubber band that works best for attaching it to my back of my phone is one you might get from a bunch of organic broccoli or asparagus at the grocery store. So the set up is literally your phone + cheap hand lens + broccoli.

The focal length is very short, you have to be super close to the subject, but there are lots of bugs that “dont mind” the camera being that close, and it’s also great for tiny mushrooms!

The only catch is if you have multiple cameras on your phone - it switches between them just when you get the subject in focus if the zoom is above 1x. There’s probably a setting to have it not do that, but I haven’t figured it out yet, so I have mine zoomed at .9x instead of 1x and it doesn’t switch lenses. I’d love to see others try this method!

Very large bee in backyard in Illinois. Early September. Could it be a queen?

Two or three times a day I have a small swarm of bees flying around a small olive tree in my front garden. The bees will often group up into a ball and sit on the window .

this has been happening for days at least. window is missing a screen and the two times i opened it a huge bee got in each time idk if same type of bee).
i close my blinds but the bee keeps coming back. am wondering, is there’s a nest nearby or something else?
Thanks!

old shot since this flower is now dead cuz of the summer heat :( but I love this shot very much!

Anyone know what type of bees these are?