Bees seem HUGE this year ?!

[GaaaaarlicBread]

Just sat in the garden and I’ve seen three different bees buzzing round and they look like they’ve been on steroids !! I saw one the other day and thought it looked big but assumed it was a queen bee or a one off biggun but no!
Anyone else noticed?! Not an important question but felt the need to share my observation , they scare me as I’m allergic and it’s ruining my ‘feet up and enjoy pregnancy’ vibe in the sun 🤣

Completely baffled to see this in relationships 🤣 Thought Id stumbled upon something I'd need to look up in urban dictionary!!
As a amateur aparist thrilled by this convo! (Although no bumble bees here in Aus☹️ But we do get a rather spectacular blue banded bee which is on a larger side and is used as a buzz pollinators in our tomato greenhouses)

Yes they’re huge! Was just speaking to my son about it.

Yes I’ve noticed too

I helped a bee out of the window yesterday, definitely a Queen Bee looking to set up a new home

I have noticed a lot of all sorts of bees in my garden this year. Big ones and little.

Loads of bumblebees & other bees in our garden. They live the bees houses & some are already filling the tubes.
Here's some pics of a massive bumblebee from a few weeks ago on our hellebores.

@Skeletoninatutu I hope you weren’t too disappointed 🤣🤣🤣

I have family in Aus and I couldn’t believe It when they said they don’t really have bumble bees !

Oh my. I said the same thing a couple of weeks ago. I've seen so many massive ones that they can't all be queens surely? 🐝

Yes! DS (2) absolutely adores them and I had to tell him to stop chasing them

We've said the same! How odd!!

God me too, we’ve noticed this. I do wonder if it’s because we’re noticing things closer to home more?

These are from last year.

I do love bees. I’m always pointing them out to the dc so they don’t run away flapping like dh does

Technically I think there are introduced feral European bumble bees in Tasmania but on the mainland no bumblebees. We do have some larger native bees but they aren't as fuzzy and classic looking as euro bumbles.

We had a huge one in the kitchen a few days ago and while dh encouraged her outside I picked up a body yesterday . She couldn't get out through the cat flap and someone must have shut the utility door.

I have a bee house in a tree and have planted lots of 🐝 and 🦋 friendly plants and flowers and while I've had lots in my garden, I haven't seen any in the house.

I actually stroke live bees. I love em. If they're happily feeding on a flower, you can approach very gently and stroke their fur. They'll stick a leg up, but seem otherwise unbothered and carry on happily feeding. I'm not necessarily recommending it others, but if you try it be very very gentle.

I have a wildlife friendly garden that’s always full of bees. I don’t think they’re any bigger this year (can they even grow bigger than their usual size?). I think it’s just that people normally don’t notice them.

My mum told me there's lots of queens looking for places to nest at the moment

Huge bees but weirdly no birds of prey!

Sticking a leg up means they're feeling really threatened. I prefer not to stress them out.

It's taken DTwatCat eight years to learning that furry flying ping-pongs are not to be played with. Every other year, he's ended up wandering round with a face like a Kardashian at some point - he began to learn last year, so only did it once before just alerting me to cold, sleepy ones in the house each morning - this year, he has just looked at them whilst remaining securely planted in blankets/cushions on the settee.

The first were the Buff tailed Queens and, this week, there have been some Tree Bees - if you want to compare the size, you're going from the size of your thumb to that of your little finger nail.

The Mason Bees are starting to emerge, the Honeys are starting to forage and give it a few days (which is how long it's going to take for my Pyracantha to go from 3 blossoms to thousands) and there will be leafcutters, all the Masons and most of the other common Bumble species here.

Ahh I had a massive bee visit my office a couple of weeks ago. He sat on the blinds for a bit, had a nap then when he got up, I helped him back out the window. He was lovely 🐝

How weird, we were talking about this just today! An absolutely massive bee was in the conservatory, so huge! It was like a ball of fluff and was v.noisy....then in the garden today, two more! Again, way bigger than normal. I wonder why?

I have seen several birds of prey, hunting in my area. I think the quiet from lack of cars in enticing them to hunt in towns as well as country side.

We had a ginormous one in the house yesterday.
DD swears that she saw it twerking then it poo'd.
It was the most exciting thing to happen all week.

We had an enormous bee fly into the sitting room on Sunday- it was gigantic, and DH had difficulty wafting it back out of the window.
It was so fuzzy though