Some Bee close ups.

Took quite a few Bee pics this afternoon as the pollen is a plenty here atm.
These are my favourites.

Excellent shots, sockpuppet.

Referring to the last three pictures, the bee certainly seems to perform its duty.

Nice pics Mike, but I think the first two are of a hover fly. They are not as hairy as bees and contribute much less, if any, to plant pollenation.

Notice the black head and eyes of the bee compared to the brown eye of the hover fly. They carry their wings slightly differently when at rest too.

The first is my favourite.

The first one is probably only about half the size of my little finger nail, if that and was hovering so that probably is a hover fly. The second was definately flying like a bee and was around the same sort of size.
Saying that, I am no bee expert so you could well be right

To bee or not to bee ?

Well on the bright side at least no one can crack the old "Spanish fly" joke as well.

2nd one is definitely a hoverfly - they're great bee mimics It's probably a Drone-fly, so called because they look like honey bee drones.

3rd one is my favourite, it's a different and fun composition.

Nice shots!