I found this yesterday.
Image is taken from a 2nd floor window and had to be digitally zoomed, so the quality isn’t great.
It is a disc shaped mass of flying insects, with a diameter of approximately 15cm.
My first thought was a bee hive, but it doesn’t look anything like the bee hives I’ve seen on those Winnie the pooh documentaries.
2nd question: should I call pest control, or leave it be?
Looks like a honeybee swarm. It will disperse soon if it hasn’t already.
I took another shot from a different angle.
Looks like it’s intended to be permanent. I think I might leave it and only if someone gets stung, then call pest control.
Honey bees. Call a bee farmer. They will gladly take it.
This turned out to be good advice. I found a bee keepers association that will do free relocation.
However, they don’t do it in the summer so I will have to wait a bit. No harm done so far so I don’t mind.
Do I see wax comb in the second photo? It’s less common to set up exposed in the open like that but it does happen. In that case you have an actual hive, no longer a swarm. Still relatively easy to remove. Although with a swarm we literally just hand-scoop then into a box.
Depending on how widespread membership is in that association, there may still be folks around and available. But finding them can be tricky. In the US I’d say contact your local USDA extension office. If you’ve got any local message boards, Facebook, etc., it may be worth fishing about.
I second the ask around suggestion- I’ve collected one swarm posted about on Facebook and arranged the collection of another. That doesn’t look like a very big swarm to me, it looks like quite a bit of comb and not too many bees.
Weirdly, over the last 24 hours, I’ve become slightly fond of these critters.
Would it be a bad idea for me to leave out a bowl of sweet stuff for them, to ensure they survive long enough (until the end of summer) for the bee keepers to relocate them?
If I were to do so, what would be the best concoction? Just sugar and water seems a bit devoid of micro-nutrients. Maybe muscovado would be better.
All they need is flowers within a mile or so.
I’m just guessing but I think they like honey. 
Maybe your new friends will give you some honey.
This was the first hit when I googled feeding honeybees. Seems like plain sugar water is fine, but not necessarily necessary.
If feeding honeybees, always use white sugar- brown or muscavado can give them dysentery.
I wouldn’t though, leaving stuff like that out in the open is a good way of getting problems, like attracting other bees which then start robbing the little colony.
Yeah, look around to see what wildflowers, shrubs etc. you have in blossom, and maybe plant some flower seedlings to provide some extra supply, but no need to give them pre-processed stuff.
Are those sweet, little, black Italian bees? They are nice and unlikely to sting, is what I’ve heard. They never sting me. They are like pets.
Down here in the southland we call ‘em good-news bees. If they hang around you’re likely to get good news. According to local woo and my ol’ Granny.
If anything important happens in the family, a birth, a death, a marriage, etc. Be sure to go out there and tell them. If you don’t, they’ll get offended and leave the property.
Lord knows that’s what I’m hoping for.