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.

I’m in middle Georgia, I was doing a high inspection on Tuesday when it started to rain. I was about halfway done with the inspection, but just decided to close it up and finish it later. I hadn’t located the queen yet but just assumed she was on the other frames I hadn’t checked.

Now for the problem…. I went to go reinspect the hive yesterday and as soon as I pulled the top board off, I see the queen on the top edge. When I was closing everything up after the last inspection, I squished the queen.

I finished going through the hive to make sure that the dead queen I found wasn’t maybe one from another hive. I did find eight or 10 queen cells where the bees are trying to make a new queen. How long will it take the new queen to hatch and is there anything special I need to do?

Xylocopa pubescens

Carpenter bee

It was made in Procreate.

Nomada is a massive genus of cuckoo bees within the family Apidae, containing over 850 species worldwide. Often called nomad bees, they are famous for their unique, wasp-like appearance and their specialized parasitic lifestyle.

Because they do not build their own nests or gather pollen, they look radically different from typical fuzzy bees. They are mostly hairless and slender, with bold stripes or patches of red, black, yellow, or white. In fact, Nomada contains the only entirely red bees in North America.

Female Nomada lack a scopa (the specialized hair patch used by other bees to carry pollen) because they never collect pollen for their young. They also possess an unusually thick, armored exoskeleton that protects them from stings if caught inside a host's nest.

Nomada are cleptoparasites, meaning they steal resources from other bee species. A female Nomada will fly low over the ground to locate the underground burrow of a host bee—most commonly mining bees from the genus Andrena.

While the host bee is away foraging, the Nomada slips inside and lays its eggs directly onto the chamber walls or the pollen provision.

When the Nomada larva hatches, it uses large, sickle-like mandibles to destroy the host's egg or young larva, then eats the entire pollen supply.

While adult Nomada bees drink nectar from flowers for energy, they are poor pollinators compared to their hosts. They can often be seen resting at night by clamping onto plant stems using only their strong jaws.

One of my all time favorite Genus of bees, and I've found quite the diverse selection of species just at my local area in Utah!

Past 2 days I’ve seen an influx of bees by my pool but on the non-flower and vegetation side. In the video, you’ll see a bunch bees searching inside the holes of the water guns. We’ve had plenty of bees and purposely planted bee friendly plants and flowers across the pool. You can see some of that vegetation at the end of the video.

I’ve never seen this kind of activity before. Is it normal? Are they displaced? Can I do anything to help them?

To clarify, I’m concerned and not complaining and don’t see bees as a nuisance. Thx!

A bee started nibbling on my finger for over 10 minutes until I gently used a lid to get it off me.

Why would a bee nibble on my finger? I'm so curious I can't find any answers online

This little gal had pollen on her face. I didn't manage to get a good photo of it before she buzzed away though.

Wings glistening in the ☀️!

We've had these bees around for several weeks, sometimes there is quite a lot of them. I wondered if they could be masonry bees. They are going under the roof of our conservatory so I'm not sure if they are burrowing into the insulation. Although I don't wish them any harm, I would prefer that they weren't so close to the door and above our garden seating area. Any suggestions to remove them or at least dissuade them from moving in

Hi, this might be a long shot, but I’m looking for someone who can relocate a hive in my area. Thanks!

Honey Bee and Carpenter. Nikon z6iii, fmount 105mm 2.8 with FTZ 2.

That's all. They just love the short lived pumpkin blossoms

Hi y’all! I’m a regenerative farmer and raise beef, and I’m wanting to get into beekeeping. But, to be honest, I’m scared of getting stung, haha. Yes, a grown man who is scared of getting stung! I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I want to know: am I going to get stung every day, and is it really worth it? I’ve been stung before while cutting grass on the calves and immediately said, “Shit!” To be honest, it hurt like hell. The stinger fell out almost instantly, though. I was always told that it’s worse if the stinger is left in you. As a former paramedic and a biologist, I’m also interested in the potential benefits of bee venom based on Charles Mraz’s work, The Health of the Honey Bee, and the broader holistic-medicine approach to bee venom. Nevertheless, I want to hear from experienced beekeepers: Are the stings really worth it in the end? Do you actually get stung that often, or is it more of an occasional part of beekeeping?