LindenNora · Uppsala, SE · Beginners · Jun 15, 2026

ID help — which of my garden visitors are actually my honeybees?

Bit of a soft question but I'm genuinely confused. Since getting my two hives this spring I keep 'recognising' my bees all over the garden, but my partner pointed out that half of them look nothing alike. There's a big round fuzzy one bumbling around the comfrey, a slim brownish one on the raspberries, and a small almost blue-black shiny one that's been going in and out of the holes in our fence posts. Are any of these actually mine? And is the shiny one something I should worry about near the hives? Feels silly to keep bees and not be able to tell what a honeybee looks like, but here we are.

#bee-id#beginner#pollinators

▲ 11 votes 💬 3 replies ✅ Solved

3 replies

BuckfastLinda · Jun 15, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer

Not silly at all, everyone goes through this! Big round fuzzy one = bumblebee (Bombus), lives in small nests in the ground or compost, totally harmless neighbour. Slim brown/amber one on the raspberries = that's your honeybee. The small metallic blue-black one nesting in fence-post holes is a mason bee (Osmia) — solitary, carries pollen on the underside of her abdomen instead of leg baskets, no threat whatsoever to your hives. All three are pollinating for you, so you've got a healthy garden.

KentishBee · Jun 15, 2026

BuckfastLinda's spot on. Quick trick I use: honeybees look slightly 'waisted' and semi-bald on the thorax by midsummer, and they're the only ones you'll see in big numbers on one flower patch at once. Bumbles and masons show up as ones and twos. Also mason bees fly earlier and in cooler weather than yours will.

LindenNora · Jun 16, 2026

This is great, thank you both. Went back out with my coffee and yes — the raspberry ones are streaming in and out of my hive entrance. The mason bee can keep her fence post, we'll call it rent-free pollination.

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