I’ve had her for 2 weeks (I found her running around because her wing doesn’t work)

PS Sorry for misgendering my Queen bee in the comments I thought she was a boy for a while but I’ll Stop now

I found this bee sitting on the concrete in my backyard. He has no wings and I saw a praying mantis a couple flowers over. I gave him some sugar water and let him rest on me for a little but he absolutely refuses to go back where I found him and I’m not too sure what to do.

Saw this a while ago and was meaning to post here to see if you fine folks had any ideas. Thanks!

He was totally just chilling on the car 😊

I found this striking blue-banded insect that looks very much like a bee but I’m not quite sure about it. I’ve never heard of blue bees before.

I was walking around my garden when I saw this big one! anybody know what type?

I am located in California, Zone 9b.

I’m the president and founder of the Oxford University Beekeeping Society, and around World Bee Day last month I opened the university’s first student teaching apiary in 185 years. 200 years ago we had a predecessor called the Oxford Apiarist Society, but they went defunct in 1841 when their founder left Oxford to introduce beekeeping to New Zealand (and later went insane, look Rev. William Cotton up).

To celebrate the occasion I handsewed this early modern beesuit. It's a simple linen tunic along with the wicker woven face cover, and a flower crown we broke out for the ceremony. This wicker style is attested in a few medieval and early modern wood blocks and illuminated manuscripts, notably including Pieter Bruegel’s ‘The Beekeepers and the Birdnester’ (1568) and Sebastian Münster’s Cosmography (1544). When I’m not beekeeping I’m working on a history PhD, so had the fortune of visiting some of the sources in the Bodleian Library archives.

Much of the research and sewing patterns are thanks to u/redbonito who wrote up a guide on the design here: blamensir.neocities.org/monastery/workshop/sewing/beekeeper

There are a few errors or inaccuracies I’d like to correct in future– the sleeves should be wrapped at the wrist, the wicker face is a little small compared with historical examples, there’s a mistaken gap between the neckline and hood, and I haven’t yet tried my hand at early modern hose or footwear.

On the day we also invited the college choir out to serenade the bees with a 1623 beekeeping melody, Melissomelos, composed by the Oxford alum Charles Butler. Butler was the first beekeeper within Britain to argue that the beehive was ruled by a queen rather than a king in his book the Feminine Monarchie, which concluded with Melissomelos. The melody mimics the real 'piping', or singing behaviour of newborn queen bees, but lyrically is also an allusion to the reign and colonial expansion of Queen Elizabeth I. Oriel College wrote an article on the event which you can find here, and there are some recordings of the choir performance you can find on their social media back on May 6 🐝:
oriel.ox.ac.uk/news/oriel-singers-inaugurate-apiary-at-bartlemas-sports-ground/

So many questions here are "what kind of bee is this?", when it's not a bee at all...

I was taught as a kid, if it has a tiny waist, it's a wasp. Hopefully this helps...

The only reason I have a door bell camera is for random stuff like this, my wife and I have been cracking up all day from this video. Hope you enjoy it as well!

Parked next to this tree in downtown Carlsbad. It had a two or three hollows in it. I looked inside one of them and saw all these dead bees. What causes something like that?

Hi! I took this video of the (bumble?) bees that are making that hole in my balcony their home. I was wondering what are they doing by vibrating/moving their wings just outside of the hole.
Also I don’t really want to kill them, will it be a problem if I leave them alone for the rest of the season? I don’t want them to damage(?) the walls.

Thanks!! 🐝

Yesterday I found a giant bumblebee on the hood of my car. Took some pictures, posted her on iNaturalist, and was quickly informed that I'd found a Rusty Patch Bumblebee queen/gyne!

She was pretty docile for photos since it was barely 60 degrees at the time. I sent the photos to my county conservation department, and they confirmed the ID for me! I've also sent photos to the state university entomology department and the Xerces society.

But here she is! The crowning achievement of my native gardening!

Iowa, US

My mum is in the canary islands, these guys come in the evening to sleep. She is asking what type of bee they are, why they are doing this & how to make them sleep somewhere else. She is allergic to bee stings but loves bees. She doesn’t want them gone or hurt, just not on her decoration 🤣 🐝 Thanks for any replies!

A not so happy update on Phyllis the Wingless Bee. Phyllis unfortunately passed away on Labor Day afternoon, a little over a week after I first found her. That morning she seemed very lethargic despite the sunshine (Typically she would run laps around her enclosure and tumble all around when the sun was out). She also kept falling over and could not right herself up. Then I noticed her tongue flicking in and out repeatedly despite me giving her sugar water which can be a sign a bee is about to pass away. Then she just passed. I was hoping she would hold on longer because I have seen carpenters kept for months in captivity but my guess is that the virus that affected her wings also affected her neurologically. She always seemed to struggle with balance and locating food. That is part of the reason that I kept her in a relatively small enclosure. She was also pretty torn up when I first found her, laying in a bed of pine needles with one messed up antenna. I am so glad I found her and got to give her a home, even if just for a while. This whole experience is actually making me consider doing an entomology concentration in college. I am going to post some more videos of her in the comments because you guys seemed to enjoy them. On the last picture in this slide you can see more clearly what her wings looked like. Me and some of my friends will have a memorial for her tonight. Thank you guys for so much love. Bee kind to the small things in the world.

Made for a bee keeper friend of mine. We studied entomology together in college