What kind of bee ?

I know there are 1500+ kind of bees.
Found this bee on our zucchini this morning.
Anyone know what this is ?

[click on photo for larger version]

*update*
The colors are dark brown and white (not black/yellow)

warre hive

I was interested in a different kind of bee box, so I ordered (through Maurice) a warre hive.
I was able to pick it up at the LACBA meeting yesterday.

More info on warre hives:
thebeespace.net/warre-hive/
http://www.beethinking.com/warrehives
and if you want to build it yourself:
http://thebeespace.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/warre_hive_plans_english.pdf


Have to catch a swarm today ;-)

Thursday: cutout roof Simi Valley

A house where bees are visiting every year.
Nobody bothered to bee proof the situation.
I was lucky to have a new-bee Jeremy to join me in this adventure.

Had to arrange a 28' ladder and stuff in order to reach the roof.

Bought a cordless reciprocal saw to cut through the wood.
Put the comb in the box.
This really calls for a bee vac, so that's what I am planning on doing first.

I filled the void with insulation and put everything back as best as possible.

saturday: special swarm catch

This morning I did a swarm catch that had been hanging in a tree for the last 6 weeks !
A 89 year old lady wanted me to save the bees.

I really had to use my 4WD low gear to get into a canyon were the bees were.
[CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VERSION]

It smelled so nice, there was blooming sage everywhere

My car wouldn't fit here, so I had to walk the rest

The bees had started making comb in the plants just above the ground

I cut away all the branches that were in the way

I used a saw to seperate everything just above the ground and gently shook them into my new (thanks James) Nuc Box.

Sage blossom with a lot of bees on it.

I asked the owner of the property if I could leave some hives in this oasis.
She is thinking about it.

Thursday: trapout Camarillo

I was asked to do a trapout of a garden wall. I could find only 1 hole/entrance to the hive.
I drilled 2 holes, installed the bee escape on it
[CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER VERSION]

Cutout in Thousand Oaks

This morning I did a cutout of a post in from of a home in Thousand Oaks.
I had great help: Esther and Eric were there.
Since I didn't bring the bee vac I decided not to smoke the bees and to prevent the queen from running to a space where we couldn't reach here.
[CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER VERSIONS]

This is how it looked after I took the front of the post off

Closeup

Esther cutting the comb that Eric cut from the post into the frames

After we scooped about 90+% of the bees in the box , we put it on a ladder and put it on top for the bees to re-group.

Strait easy cutout, and with the aid Eric and Esther, we had a lot of fun doing it.

*UPDATE*
According to the owner they had been there 4-6 weeks.
I think they have been there at least 6 months.
There were 5 layers of comb, about 3' in length inside this post.

**UPDATE II**
I picked up the bees 7:15pm, they had all moved into the wooden box, just a few buzzing around the entrance. Job succeeded.
Esther did get stung (through her glove), she is (imho) now officially ready for beeing a beekeeper.

Bee photo's

Thanks to a posting on the backward beekeepers list, this link contains beautiful photo's

Enjoy!