Anyone seen these around their hives?

[fermentedhiker]

This summer I had some native bees pilfering at my hive.  I hesitate to call it robbing because it just didn't fit the level of violence described in my beekeeping books referring to robbing.  They were larger than my Italian/Carniolan  girls, nearly the size of the queen I would say.  The most I ever saw of them was maybe 8.  They came to the hive singly and the guard bees would drive them away, but they would just circle around the hive and come back in.  About every third try they would sneak by the guard bees and make off with their booty.



Reducing the entrance solved the problem, although not for the reason the books usually say(that is a smaller entrance is easier to defend).  It created such a traffic jam that the native bees couldn't find and space to get in.  From looking on bugguide it seems like they might be from the Genus Andrena.  Anyone else have any experiences with these or other natives around their hives.  I am a little concerned about how lax my girls guards were about the whole thing.  I mean only one or two of them actually seemed to mind the intruders.

[suprstakr]

With those big eyes looks like a drone :)

[Michael Bush]

I can't see it that well, but since it seems to be drinking nectar from a flower, I'm guessing some kind of solitary bee, perhaps a mason bee.  There are also some flies that drink nectar and look like a bee.

[Brian D. Bray]

Looks more like some variety of what is referred to as a Metallic bee due to its "metalic sheen."

[fermentedhiker]

Sorry about the photo quality.  My digital camera is old and slow and by the time it takes the pic the bees are usually gone.  I'll try to find a better pic on my hardrive, it seems like I had a profile shot on a blackberry blossom that was a little clearer.  I think the Metallic sheen is mostly bad camera work.  The Mason bees I've seen look a little stouter but I could be wrong.  Face to face they looked basically like an oversized worker bee.  All black abdomen will slight amount of hair on the thorax with a bald spot typically seen on a queen.  In flight they sounded a lot like a drone, ie loud.  Once I even found one loafing about on the frame tops when I opened the hive for inspection.  Sitting up there like it belonged.  When I picked it up with the hive tool and tossed it away it got very angry with me  :-D and did the usual hover cussing I get from the guard bees only it was hovering around my crotch.  I admit I was a little nervous about that  :lol: 

Oddly none of the combat was mortal.  Which is why I referred to it as pilfering.  I'll go look for that other photo now.

Thanks for the replies though.

[fermentedhiker]

Wasn't as hard to find as I thought