What I meant was:

1) Can you confirm that this is A. mellifera, and if so, could it be feral?

2) Is there any chance that this could be some species other than mellifera, ie, a native?

Apparently I can now conclude that any Apis-type bee in CA is perforce mellifera, but I didn't know that. I did check four references before appealing to you guys. Calphotos, for example, has 50+ Apis pix, all mellifera, so there must not be any others, but that was not obvious to me, hence my apparent cluelessness. I had been told we had native bees here, but I guess that was wrong.

for questions like these (when BugGuide guide pages are lacking in information) is Nomina Nearctica, which (supposedly) lists all the insect species in America north of Mexico. In this case, both BugGuide and Nomina Nearctica indicate that A. mellifera is the only species of Apis in North America (which is not to say there are not many, many native bees in your area; just not honey bees). For more California-specific questions, BugGuide happens to have a list of California resources (including some regional checklists) here.

I hope you weren't offended by Eric's response--I think he just misunderstood your question, which is what I was trying to clarify.

I think perhaps "feral" was meant rather than "native." Certainly honey bees have become established in the wild across North America, so this may well be a bee that doesn't belong to a beekeeper.