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Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

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Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#111

Post by pvaldes »

likpok wrote: post #80
Not_a_pizza wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there some real figure which would give truth to the amount other insects would pollinate, if not honey bees? It seems like we have way too many insects in the world for the honey bee to be the only reliable pollinator. Besides, aren't solitary bees supposed to be better pollinators? As much as I like honey, I can't help but thinking there is a huge gap in logic with all of these people waving and screaming we are…

Realistically, the only plants which rely on honeybee pollination are from eastern europe, since that's where honeybees lived before the indo-european expansion. So any plant that's say native to the new world (corn, beans, squash, tomatoes) must not rely on honeybees for pollination. This is not to say that there's not a bee problem: non-honey bees suffer from habitat loss (and a lack of investment keeping them arou…

The honeybee origin is African rainforests, there are a few of other honeybees species native from Asian rainforests also.

Some families of plants native of Europe use bees, other not. Is more about plant phylogeny than about geography. Similar species of flowers in other areas are quickly adopted by bees when available.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#112

Post by tptacek »

pvaldes wrote: post #110
Not_a_pizza wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there some real figure which would give truth to the amount other insects would pollinate, if not honey bees? It seems like we have way too many insects in the world for the honey bee to be the only reliable pollinator. Besides, aren't solitary bees supposed to be better pollinators? As much as I like honey, I can't help but thinking there is a huge gap in logic with all of these people waving and screaming we are…

Solitary bees are specialized in small flowers like clover, and are territorial and well, solitary. In their niche are unbeatable, but can't compete with a healthy beehive if we talk about apples, pears, peaches, plums or cherries.

Mason bees are used to pollinate apple orchards.

Obviously, worth noting that the trees you're listing --- with the possible exception of plums --- are also non-native. Which doesn't make them bad, but does make this an industrial agriculture problem, not an environmental one. And industrial agriculture seems to have the honey bee maintenance problem basically under control.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#114

Post by steve_adams_86 »

esemor wrote: post #8

Near my house there is what you could call a insect ”sanctuary”. When it was established a few tears ago we kind of shrug our shoulders and did not think much of it. But the amount of new flowers and insects popping up, not only inside but also around the area is astonishing. I almost see it as a positive feedback loop with more insects, better pollination, more diverse flowers, more insects... Just as pesticides cou…

This happens in the ocean, too. There are places around my island which were turned into ecological reserves, and the result for surrounding habitats was incredibly positive. Not only does it help stabilize the ecosystem in the reserve, but it results in overflow for crowded species looking for new habitats, improves feeding opportunities for roaming predators, results in better vegetation growth in the general area, and more.

Recreational fishermen still get very upset about it despite how positive it is for fishing in waters that are still open. It seems like a decrease in fishing opportunities, but in reality the reserves function like wells of life for the surrounding ocean to draw upon. I'd love to see even more reserved established.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#115

Post by lostlogin »

ryandrake wrote: post #103
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not whining over the slightest inconvenience is part of existing in civil society. Complaining about your neighbor using an air hammer on steel at 11pm, ok. Complaining about your neighbor using an air hammer on steel at normal hours = not ok. It all comes down to being reasonable and in middle upper class suburbia the Overton window of what is reasonable has moved to favor the complainers over the people who want to…

Got a kick out of your air hammer example because I happen to be working on a project that involves me using an air hammer (among other loud pneumatic tools) on many weeknights. The key was I actually took the time before starting to gasp sit down and talk to my neighbors and agree on things like noise level, hours I’d be working, keeping the garage door shut, etc. Lucked out by having reasonable neighbors, but you c…

Giving them something works a treat. I assume my bees will misbehave one day and irritate neighbours so I have preemptively handed over many kgs of honey. Some have been keen and had a look in the hives too. The neighbours haven’t complained yet tho SOs have, as once I had a beemageddon when I had a bit of a honey extraction disaster had everyone in the house had to leave home for the day until I sorted it out. Bees were coming in keyholes, extractor fans and gaps in closed windows.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#116

Post by lostlogin »

jandrese wrote: post #100
kurthr wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first article I found discussed fungus extracts for virus treatment... I didn't see anything about mite eradication, but that would be a really big deal! https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32194-8#ref-CR20

This may be a case where the mites are more of a symptom than a cause. Once the hive is healthy they may be able to deal with the mites on their own.

Genetics will play a massive part in this. In New Zealand mites are relatively new and bees die fast without treatment, however strong they are. Everyone who wants live hives treats 2x a year minimum and some are doing it up to 7x. If anyone is interested in new approaches, check out the (very long) thread on a local site that covers a novel way of applying oxalic acid. It is excellent and the guy driving has done masses of development in his rural shed. Broadly, it’s multiple layers of paper jointing tape (usually for use on plaster board joints) that are sewn together and soaked in a glycerine and oxalic acid mix. They are very cheap and seem very effective.

https://www.nzbees.net/forums/topic/13073-integrated-pest-ma...

https://www.nzbees.net/forums/topic/10061-oxalic-and-glyceri...

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#117

Post by lostlogin »

partiallypro wrote: post #58

One glaring problem I see with this is that anyone who has ever had hives (which my family has) knows how quickly Varroa mites can spread (the #1 killer of bees.) If all the bees are in a single location, that could wipe out every hive there. Would make more sense to me if you made sanctuaries that were spread on ~1 acre plots around a wide area (thinking several cities/town in a clustered area.) Anyone with more exp…

There are worse diseases too - like American foul brood. The cure (by law) here in New Zealand is to pour petrol in the hive then burn it, even if it is in just one cell. It goes through an apiary fast, as bees rob out dead hives. The dream scenario is to have apiarys completly isolated from one another, but we are so overstocked here that this isn’t possible.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#118

Post by ghaff »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #101
ghaff wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a number of states including Massachusetts, there are towns that have right-to-farm ordinances. They're not just anything goes obviously but the basic intent is to tell people that they really shouldn't move to a fairly rural old farm town and then complain that their neighbor is planting corn, raising goats, or generally doesn't have a neatly manicured lawn.

Having lived in MA and every New England state north of it MA is highly, highly variable when it comes to what happens on your property being your business and nobody else's. Basically anywhere that was incorporated back when they were still burning witches is going to be downright terrible. Of the areas that were developed later some were not blind to the mistakes of the past and these tend to be pretty good. My own…

I'm sure it does vary. My MA town was incorporated in 1653 and I've never had neighbor or town issues--but then we're all on a fair bit of land.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#119

Post by pvaldes »

tptacek wrote: post #112
pvaldes wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solitary bees are specialized in small flowers like clover, and are territorial and well, solitary. In their niche are unbeatable, but can't compete with a healthy beehive if we talk about apples, pears, peaches, plums or cherries.

Mason bees are used to pollinate apple orchards. Obviously, worth noting that the trees you're listing --- with the possible exception of plums --- are also non-native. Which doesn't make them bad, but does make this an industrial agriculture problem, not an environmental one. And industrial agriculture seems to have the honey bee maintenance problem basically under control.

Mason Japanese bees (Osmia cornifrons) are used to pollinate apple orchards. Non native.

Osmia lignaria is US native and used to pollinate almonds and orchards, but is not so common.

There are other mason bees native from USA like Osmia ribifloris but they pollinate manzanitas (a relative to Rhododendron), not manzanas (apples). They can pollinate blueberries also (that are in the same family as Manzanitas and share similarly shaped flowers).

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#120

Post by designtofly »

esemor wrote: post #8

Near my house there is what you could call a insect ”sanctuary”. When it was established a few tears ago we kind of shrug our shoulders and did not think much of it. But the amount of new flowers and insects popping up, not only inside but also around the area is astonishing. I almost see it as a positive feedback loop with more insects, better pollination, more diverse flowers, more insects... Just as pesticides cou…

I think that humanity is going to look back and see pesticides and herbicides as one of the worst mistakes in history. It's slowly becoming clear just how damaging they are to the world's ecosystem. I urge everyone to stop using them, especially for absolutely needless things like killing dandelions and other vanity uses.
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