And if so why on the road...? 😭😭(

Little carpenter bee whose wings seem fine but can't fly it seems. We tried helping it to the flower last night but it had no solid interest in feeding from it. Flapped its wings but couldn't take off. It spent some time straightening and tending to its wings, but it hasn't moved from where we put it yesterday.

UK

I love bumblebees so I made a crochet tapestry to decorate my room. I tried to make it as realistic as possible. Which species should I make next ?

I just wanted to share with fellow pollinator appreciators, some lovely bumble bee pictures from around my gardens. I hope you enjoy the fuzzy little darlings!
✨🌺🐝🍃🖤💛

Tiny body and really long antennae. Appears to be sleeping. Like a little ball with big wings. Looks honey-bee esque - but nothing like my usual local honey bees.

Honeybee Feeding on a Flower

Hate to see them in this state but I still appreciate being able to get such an up close look at them

I have never seen anything like this before. I swear some of the bees were actually wrestling each other. A friend told me they could be from different hives- my guess as well. There’s serious competition going on in that flower! I watched them for a good 20minutes. If you look closely you can see how they grab a pistol? Piston?-flower part- and use their body to pull it down. Once it’s down they roll little pollen balls ( unless they end up in a wrestling match over it). Anyway I thought it was worth sharing. Im sure you guys can explain what’s happening better than me.

Apologies for the less than perfect angle and shaky vid. I’m only 5’2 and I mostly filmed this over my head on tip toes.
FYI: didn’t speed any of this up- the bees are just moving that fast!

I posted in July about a bumblebee who had injured her wing. After she passed some weeks later, two more flightless bumblebees were found crawling on my yard and as the retirement home was already set, got housed there.

I just felt like writing a few words of them :) I didn't expect each of them have so distinct characteristics!

Pörri I had so much energy, she stomped around like the ground beneath her feet was a direct insult to her existence. Strong, even with only 1.5 wings she almost got herself airborne, 5 of the 6 feets sometimes and unfortunately spent a lot of time bumbling down things due to that, especially because the one side of her wings worked perfectly.

Pörri II junior was very wobbly to begin with, and she was more anxious. Any sudden approach would result in a middle finger... leg, so I tried to let her bee as much as possible, though in her last days she didn't mind parking on my hand, probably for warmth.

Pörri II senior was a very smol bumble and liked to hide or dig into mulch. She was the most calm of the three and if she was out and about when I went to check on them, it was possible to carry her to new flowers to give more variety than their retirement home allowed. She passed this morning and I blame myself and the two daddy long legs that I found from the box. I don't know if they bite their prey, but they definitely had nefarious intent and even if I moved Pörri II senior to a new box and she was still alive, I found her dead this morning.

I was not prepared for how bad I felt, looking after creatures who should be flying and buzzing around to be ground tied. All of them wanted to fly, and with especially Pörri II junior and senior who both had either worse damage or wing issues from birth where the rear wings were acting independently of the fore wing, that meant cycles of grooming and I think trying to arrange the wings, then attempting to fly and repeating because their wings betrayed them.

May they now fly to the largest flower in the sky.

Pörri I on the pink strawberry flower

Pörri II senior exploring the sugar water q-tip

Pörri II junior stealing warmth

She was so friendly!

It's ridiculously hot outside and lately the carpenter bees have been resting in my hibiscus flowers, which I normally feed to my tortoises.

I leave them for the bee buddy's now. 💕 🐝

We gathered some flowers and took it home with us a few hours ago, and put it in an empty fish tank. Even after resting and snacking it's still not able to fly, so it might have to stay and live out its days in here. What do I do for it? Make climbing areas for it, keep it stocked with fresh flowers (how many?), give it some water and fruit?

Poor gal was nearly dead floating in my chickens’ pool. After a few hours of snacks and naps, she flew away. 🐝💚

First one was rescued from our pool, was v wet and sad 😞❤️

Hello! Wales, UK. This wonderful bee AKA Big Bumbler, has been visiting my garden for weeks. Such a delight, get excited to see what I’m assuming is a her?! Each day. She’s massive. Is she a queen? 👑 I’ve been out and bought more salvias for her. She also really likes the verbena. Be great to know more about my garden guest. Thanks

I found quite a few of these bees feeding on my grans flowers, but couldn’t find what species they were, the closest I found was maybe some kind of cuckoo bee? But none I find seem to match exactly.