At 11:07 AM 6/11/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Today I saw this in my local paper. What is the USDA bee lab thinking???
>http://www.centredaily.com/features/story3.htm
Hi Rory, & Bee Keeping Friends,
1st, for sure these PR puff story's on wild bees have as a purpose to
generate interest in continuing support for aging high cost USDA government
research at small inefficient GI labs across the country that have little
or no contact with main stream beekeeping or agriculture, for that matter,
that should have been ended years ago with the "beekeeper support programs".
We all would be better off if these labs were closed as they have a long
history of creating false negative narrations about the honey bee keeping
"industry" which is an industry while they are nothing more then bee
keeping hobbyists playing a the public's expense. It is interesting to note
that the funding for these projects are hidden in Federal legislation such
as the "Honey Promotion Bill", as they can not stand on their own or the
pass the test of "daylight" or review, and all are now finding that to bite
(sting) the bee keepers hand (mostly backside) is not good public policy as
we honey bee keepers are the one's that are asked by the public and
legislature about the creditability of these PR story's.
2nd, some of the information provided by these labs is so close to being
inaccurate they boarder on being just plain lies. There is no denying that
these wild bees are interesting but the best of them do not stand up in the
public market place. The "alfalfa" leaf cutter bees is still the only so
called "wild bee" that enjoys any popularity in field crops supplemental
pollination and it has serious health problems and is considered by many in
the public a pest insect because of the damage it does to ornamentals when
it enters the back yard environment. Some species of "bumble bees" are
doing well in green house pollination at inflated costs to growers and in
the big picture of who gets what to eat in this world are of little total
importance. Other favorites of the day are the "blue orchard" bee and I am
sure the "horned face bee" fits into this category of individual bee
pollinators that outside of their favored environs are not dependable as
pollinators in commercial pollination of orchards because of their own life
cycle which are not the same as most of agricultures which could benefit by
their presence.
I have worked with the "leaf cutter" bees and co-discovered, (I did not
know what I had.<G>), a local sub species that gained notoriety as the
"killer" leaf cutter bees years back because of their stinging behavior and
aggressive expansion traits. Most all of these wild bees have self
protection methods and many will sting and for those who are sensitive can
be as deadly as the dreaded killer bee. Its mostly a case of their
populations being small resulting human exposure is low, but if you had
populations needed for commercial pollination of orchards and fields the
odds would change.
I have a unused "bumble" bee nest box as we have very low populations here
and have failed to see my "blue orchard" bees increase in populations over
several seasons. Maybe its the competition from the honeybees in this area
and until they have all disappeared instead of the steady increase of the
last 50 years the wild bees will suffer in total numbers. The increase in
honey bee populations here is a direct results in their use for pollination
and not because the price of honey or honey yields have increased as they
have not and if honey were priced on a parity of 50 years ago it would be
bringing the producer an excess of $2.50 US per pound today. Top price
today is 1/3 of that and yields have dropped from a case or two of honey
per hive average year, (120-240 pounds), to about 30 pounds this area.
Beekeepers here do make more honey per hive by moving their bees to other
areas in state and out of state. They trade fuel oil for honey yield in
most cases, but are able to increase the per hive yield to 100 or more
pounds per season.
But the facts are the wild bees are here, they are interesting or people
like me would not have them, but they are not replacements for honey bees
and those in public service who call themselves scientist of one flavor or
another who are trying to sell them as that to the public have lost my
respect and support.
Interesting and beneficial they are, in their place, but not as a
replacement for honey bees and their keepers and if there is a fight
between bee keepers who pollinate crops I stand with those who keep honey
bees who have demonstrated for more then 50 years with successful
management for crop pollination. For years none of these wild bee keepers
have ever taken a positive stand on any issue concerning honey bee keepers
and for the most have tried to capitalize on our problems with less then
honest hot gas about their own abilities which few delivering more then the
annual inflated PR report to the press.
ttul, the OLd Drone
NEW Get MOONed at
http://beenet.com
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