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The bee that everyone wants to save

naturalist.bearblog.dev

21–30 of 92 posts

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#21

The author lost me at the end when they said to stop pulling up dandelions. Dandelions are not a native species (at least in North America) and are not a good food source for native pollinators.

Hey, I'm the author. I'm indeed writing from Hungary, Europe, and here dandelions are native, and they are one of the main sources of early food, especially for the bumblebee queens and the mining bees. My lawn is littered with dandelions and there is so much activity on them. The other main food source at this moment is plum blossoms, but those are a favorite of the honey bees and they often aggressively chase away the native bees. So most of the native bees are therefore forced to keep lower to the ground and make use of the dandelions, daisies and violets. I see all my neighbors pulling out the dandelions, and thereby removing the only really abundant food source the native bees have left. That's why I said to stop pulling up dandelions.

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#22

> The honeybee is not endangered. It never was. There are several severe threats to honey bees which without human intervention would cause a significant number of hives to be lost. There's the varroa mite and the things it carries like deformed wing virus, then there is the increasingly prevalent Asian hornet which European honey bees are unable to deal with, and colony collapse disorder where the bees literally dis…

Humans also face severe treats and are not doing well but are not going extinct tomorrow. Honeybees seems to only decline in North America, especially the USA, but as you said it’s human intervention that keeps their population booming years after years. Perhaps a decline wouldn’t be so problematic it doesn’t go to extinction? A decline in chickens population wouldn’t lead to extinction, to elaborate on the funny authors take:

> Promoting honeybee hives to save pollinators is roughly the equivalent to building more chicken farms to save bird biodiversity

The other problems you raise are important but are also a treat to others bee species and insects.

https://earth.org/data_visualization/bees-are-not-declining-...

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#23

> The honeybee is not endangered. It never was. There are several severe threats to honey bees which without human intervention would cause a significant number of hives to be lost. There's the varroa mite and the things it carries like deformed wing virus, then there is the increasingly prevalent Asian hornet which European honey bees are unable to deal with, and colony collapse disorder where the bees literally dis…

Humans also face severe treats and are not doing well but are not going extinct tomorrow. Honeybees seems to only decline in North America, especially the USA, but as you said it’s human intervention that keeps their population booming years after years. Perhaps a decline wouldn’t be so problematic it doesn’t go to extinction? A decline in chickens population wouldn’t lead to extinction, to elaborate on the funny aut…

[deleted]

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#24

My wife and I had wanted honey bees for a long time, but when we finally moved to a place that we could have had them, we noticed that we regularly saw at least 5 native bee species. We decided not to get a hive since they compete for resources and can spread disease. Given that there are neighbors that have them within about a mile, and that either those or feral colonies are close enough that we also see honey bees…

Can you “build colonies” for native species?

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#25

My wife and I had wanted honey bees for a long time, but when we finally moved to a place that we could have had them, we noticed that we regularly saw at least 5 native bee species. We decided not to get a hive since they compete for resources and can spread disease. Given that there are neighbors that have them within about a mile, and that either those or feral colonies are close enough that we also see honey bees…

Can you “build colonies” for native species?

You just need to supply the native plants they prefer to pollinate, they’ll do the rest. If you’re wondering about whether you can harvest honey from them, I don’t think so. Most native pollinator species don’t produce honey.

Bumblebees do produce a kind of honey, but it’s much thinner and less concentrated than proper honey (which has had most of the water evaporated off by the wing beats of the bees).

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#26

> The honeybee is not endangered. It never was. There are several severe threats to honey bees which without human intervention would cause a significant number of hives to be lost. There's the varroa mite and the things it carries like deformed wing virus, then there is the increasingly prevalent Asian hornet which European honey bees are unable to deal with, and colony collapse disorder where the bees literally dis…

Now think of bumble and other wild bees who catch the mites from the blossoms but get no treatment with formic or oxalic acid.

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#27

My wife and I had wanted honey bees for a long time, but when we finally moved to a place that we could have had them, we noticed that we regularly saw at least 5 native bee species. We decided not to get a hive since they compete for resources and can spread disease. Given that there are neighbors that have them within about a mile, and that either those or feral colonies are close enough that we also see honey bees…

Can you “build colonies” for native species?

Yes, though you need to know what sort of nesting sites they like, and what sources of food they need. Many native bees need certain plants to get the nutritional profile they are adapted for, and don’t do so well on nothing but dandelions and typical ornamental flowers. They also need food sources throughout their active time.

For mason and leaf cutter bees, a box sheltered from rain and filled with Japanese knotweed tubes (don’t grow it yourself, it’s highly invasive) works well for “I like seeing solitary bees around, but want minimum efforts”. There are tons of videos you can find on the subject.

Drilling various sized holes in wood blocks also often works. The nice thing about “solitary” bees (which are often quite communal), is they don’t have much of a drive to defend a nest, and would much rather fly away than bite/poke you. I’ve walked alfalfa fields full of them, and while the loud buzzing was a bit disconcerting, they couldn’t care less about me. Leafcutter bees are used for alfalfa because they don’t mind how alfalfa flowers work mechanically. European Honeybees will just chew through the base of the flower to get the nectar, avoiding pollination.

For other bees, there is highly likely to be a native bee enthusiast group in your local area that can give guidance on native flower mixes and possible setups for habitat.

Here in western Oregon, the hazelnut orchards on the sandy soil near rivers have actually become a great nesting place for multiple species of beautiful green metallic “sweat” bees: https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/gardenecologylab/2017/11/13/po...

They like the semi-compacted neutral to slightly alkaline sandy soil that’s clear of weeds, hence a long term orchard is perfect, especially as we’ve moved to softer insecticide chemistries that generally preserve beneficial insects. Offhand I think I start seeing them filling the ground with little holes in may when I start monitoring for Filbertworm moths.

And don’t forget bumblebees. While it’s a hated introduced weed for growers, it turns out that Sharppoint Fluvellen in the fescue grass fields is loved by bumblebees because it happily continues to flower in the late summer/fall when everything else has dried up or run it’s course.

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#28

TL; DR Honeybees aren’t native to the Americas. Bumblebees are. And bumblebees get outcompeted by honeybees. That’s terrible, because bumblebees promote plant biodiversity in a way generalist honeybees do not. Putting a honeybee hive in your yard or on your balcony is fine. But it’s agriculture, not conservation.

There are lots of native bees getting wiped out by Varroa destructor carried viral infections. The imported hybrids used in agriculture are more productive, and are currently being bred to have the desirable trait of cleaning/nibbling the legs off mites. Bumblebees do just fine in most places, as they go after my geraniums like a fool with a hole-punch every year. We have several local variety, and they are an import…

What's with geraniums? I remember they look nice but don’t smell.

Re: The bee that everyone wants to save

#29
post #21

The author lost me at the end when they said to stop pulling up dandelions. Dandelions are not a native species (at least in North America) and are not a good food source for native pollinators.

Hey, I'm the author. I'm indeed writing from Hungary, Europe, and here dandelions are native, and they are one of the main sources of early food, especially for the bumblebee queens and the mining bees. My lawn is littered with dandelions and there is so much activity on them. The other main food source at this moment is plum blossoms, but those are a favorite of the honey bees and they often aggressively chase away…

does this apply in the UK as well? I'm a fan of dandelions but everyone is determined to pull them out of our lawn but me!

but then I've also been told by a local bee keeper that the whole plant flowers for the bees policy isn't a good idea since that's how mites and other nasties can be transferred between hives?

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