and ended up a meal!

[TER-OR]

Yes, for honeybees the workers are all females. Same with the other social and eusocial bees. Though for all but honeybees you're pretty likely to find males as often as females in the wild. Often it's easier to get pictures of the males because they're less busy. Predation of bees by spiders and assassin bugs is pretty common, since they just have to hang out by the flowers and wait.

Good shot, btw.

[JensE]

Well, actually I´m married to a women with beehives and honeyproduction for a hobby..

Sounds familiar. Luckily my wife needs a lot of bee photos for various purposes, so equipment 'needs' are normally no problem and it also gives opportunities for some more experimental work in addition to her 'documentation assignments', which on their own are challenging and interesting.

The pictured bee looks a lot like our Carnica honey bees, and for those, the drones much chubbier and have very big eyes.

[TER-OR]

Sounds familiar. Luckily my wife needs a lot of bee photos for various purposes, so equipment 'needs' are normally no problem and it also gives opportunities for some more experimental work in addition to her 'documentation assignments', which on their own are challenging and interesting.

The pictured bee looks a lot like our Carnica honey bees, and for those, the drones much chubbier and have very big eyes.

That's typical of most male bees, big eyes - the better to see you with. They also tend to be more hairy, but there's a lot of variation.
If you want to know for sure, count antenna segments. After the "elbow" females have 10, males have 11. For all bee species.

---------- Post added 04-06-16 at 11:21 AM ----------

Here's one which gets confused for honeybees occasionally.
A male Colletes inaequalis.
[IMG][/IMG]

[pathdoc]

Also interesting is that the drones(male) don´t have a stinger, so they are both harmless and defenseless. (and pretty lazy)

And the queen, if I remember my childhood entomology correctly, has not a poison stinger which is the familiar one-and-done, kills-you-to-use-it affair but a sharp stinger without barbs which it can use multiple times (first queen out of the hatchery kills all the others in their cells immediately). IIRC it is also not venomous.

So yeah, ilfe as a male bee - perfect, until your colleagues determine that your usefulness is at an end. Then you die.

"Bring me a beer, sweet... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

[eaglem]

Thanks for the information you've supplied guys............

[TER-OR]

Here's a great book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YFTCC3K/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

Even the "pros" are really excited about it.
Bug Eric: Book Review: The Bees in Your Backyard

[eaglem]

Here's a great book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YFTCC3K/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

Even the "pros" are really excited about it.
Bug Eric: Book Review: The Bees in Your Backyard

Thanks.

[JensE]

Here's a great book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YFTCC3K/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

Even the "pros" are really excited about it.
Bug Eric: Book Review: The Bees in Your Backyard

Do you happen to know anything in similar quality covering (central ) Europe? It looks like I'd need to order a whole bunch and review myself as I can't find a reliable review source reasonably covering what's out there.

[TER-OR]

Do you happen to know anything in similar quality covering (central ) Europe? It looks like I'd need to order a whole bunch and review myself as I can't find a reliable review source reasonably covering what's out there.

I haven't looked for that. I know Dave Goulson is the Bumblebee guy in the UK. I suppose that's Bumble Bee there... You can start by looking for anything he's been involved with. I'm not sure whether the Xerces Society has some reviews or referrals, it's worth looking for. I have a couple of Goulson's bumble bee books, they're quite good.

I'd probably buy one in this range for Europe, just to see it.

[JensE]

After likely much longer than I should have spent, I ordered the revised German book by Amiet and Krebs, covering our area. For GB/Ireland, the recently published "Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland" by von Steven J. Falk (Autor) and Richard Lewington (Illustrator) received a lot of praise.

[daacon]

Great shot Em that's a huge kill food for days.

[eaglem]

Great shot Em that's a huge kill food for days.

Thanks Dave, at the size of the Golden Orb Weaver maybe half a day..............

[jbinpg]

My dad kept honeybees. We kids loved the drones because they did not have a stinger and we would let them crawl all over us. As mentioned above, they are mainly there to inseminate the queen. This wikipedia page is informative:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_%28bee%29

Human mating seems so pedestrian. Great shot, Eagle !

[eaglem]

My dad kept honeybees. We kids loved the drones because they did not have a stinger and we would let them crawl all over us. As mentioned above, they are mainly there to inseminate the queen. This wikipedia page is informative:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_%28bee%29

Human mating seems so pedestrian. Great shot, Eagle !

Thank you........

[TER-OR]

After likely much longer than I should have spent, I ordered the revised German book by Amiet and Krebs, covering our area. For GB/Ireland, the recently published "Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland" by von Steven J. Falk (Autor) and Richard Lewington (Illustrator) received a lot of praise.

I'll have a look at those. Thanks.