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So what are these?

Son says Old English Bees??

Swarming now.

look like a dark honey bee to me desperate for a new home  :)

They're certainly honeybees, and they do look like the native British type, though it's impossible to be sure from the pic. I know of a case of black bees turning out to be just like the Italian type in all but colour! They're not a swarm though, since that's a mass of bees, usually 10 000 or more. I've never heard of bees swarming after september, and even that would be very unusual as they'd have no chance of gathering enough food to last the winter. I'd say there's a nest in there, and a few of them were flying in the mild weather. I'd be interested to know whether they survive the winter. Where are they?

its quite warm today with the sun shining brightly, saw a bumblebee sunning itself on the outside of the window on closer inspection i saw that it had quite a few mites, so can't see it surviving the winter. but in saying that its probably a worker and if memory serves me correctly they don't survive the winter anyway ???.

What size was it? It could well be a queen brought out of hibernation by the warm weather.

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on November 20, 2008, 11:07:28
What size was it? It could well be a queen brought out of hibernation by the warm weather.

i would say it was about an 1" (2 1/2cm) long and about 1/2" (1 1/2cm) wide. i tried to get it to try and remove the mites, but it flew away :-\.

Far too small for a queen. It's very late in the season for a worker, but that's obviously what it was.

think i saw the same bee later feeding from the flowers of this plant (see below), there was another bumble bee as well but different type smaller in size with different markings.