Dave Green wrote:

>
>
>   In the context of modern monoculture (which I don't forsee reverting to
>polyculture anytime soon), the advocates of these bees, are often guilty of
>hype.  We probably err when we speak of them as "alternative pollinators,"
>which suggest that they can replace honeybees. We would be wiser to speak of
>"supplemenetal pollinators."
>
>   One of the points I have tried to make with my web page is that
>pollinators are not interchangeable. Each has strengths and weakness, and
>each varies in appropriateness for a particular task. Often the best
>pollinator is a mix of pollinators.
>
>(snip)
>   The bickering that is sometimes seen between solitary bee proponents and
>pollinating honeybeekeepers is not a good thing. Both groups are natural
>allies, and should be working together,
>

Which is why we invited the researcher to speak to the Maine State
Beekeepers.  I think it helped the researcher as much as it informed us.
There was a bit of the hype that Dave mentioned (today blueberries,
tomorrow the world) as well as some "us vs them" and it helped them get
another perspective (and us too). We both learned.

I had a major problem with the research. It did show better pollination
by solitary bees (most studies do), but the test area was in a blueberry
field that was also being pollinated by honeybees! Talk about
contamination of a trial.

Plus, as I mentioned, there was no real cost comparison. That I did on
my own. One factor that is often omitted is long term upkeep. In
essence, the grower either hires someone to manage the solitary bees or
contracts for the service. The going rate for migratory honeybee
colonies pollinating blueberries is about $50 per hive or about $150-200
per acre for about 60-80,000+ pollinators. What little literature I have
seen shows the equivalent number of mason bees is about 7,000- 10,000
per acre. At a price of  $30-50 for 100 solitary bees that equates to
$200- $500 per acre and does not include all the equipment needed to
house them, the labor in setting up the "houses" and upkeep. The actual
cost per acre is near $1000. That is just startup. You run into the same
cost differential in maintaining them compare to honeybee colonies - if
you were going to maintain them on site, difficult in both cases because
of monoculture. (Many migratory beekeepers move from blueberries to
raspberries to get surplus (and premium honey). Too often you can go
onto a blueberry field heavier than you come out.)  But you do not need
to maintain honeybees, just contract for them once a year.

Solitary beekeeping is even more difficult when you see all the
additional variables connected to maintaining large colonies of Mason
Bees in Maine. If you think we have it rough, honeybees are much more
forgiving than Mason Bees. Tilt a Mason Bee nest slightly off the
horizontal and you could lose the lot. Have a few days of damp, cold
weather, a normal condition in Maine in the spring, and you get near to
no pollination not just for those days but for the whole bloom period
because the bees emergence is either delayed or numbers emerging are cut
back or both!

Some areas, with mild winters, may be more appropriate for solitary bees
and give a cost advantage. I have read that may be the case with
cherries in Washington State. But I do not have enough information to
make that judgment (since State researchers were involved which means
"free" labor). The only thing discussed was yield and how much better it
was than with honeybees, the same as the results in the blueberry fields
in Maine. But that could also have been because they did not have the
optimum number of hives per acre, something still being looked at here
in Maine.

Even in a small orchard, when honeybees disappeared because of Varroa
and solitary bees were the main pollinator,  I got lots of calls for
honeybee pollination (you put in a hive and we will let you keep the
honey) from apple growers and, after a disastrous year when they leaned
they had been getting free pollination services from local beekeepers,
squash and pumpkin growers. (Even this year I heard from many that it
had been a "bad year" for squash, while I had no problems at all. Just
look in a squash or pumpkin flower at the number of bees that try to
crowd into them.)

It is interesting that with the onset of Varroa in Maine, the number of
Apple orchards has decreased considerably. Some of it may be foreign
competition, but I think much is also the lack of "free" pollination by
honeybees because of the loss of local beekeepers. (Too many "bad" years
of reduced crops. I know I got fair crops of apples every year before I
started beekeeping, but since then they are bumper crops.

I have a nice mix of honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees ( as well
as flies) that do a good job of pollinating everything. When Varroa
struck and drove many local beekeepers out of keeping bees, I got many
calls about different "bees" (or "flies"- which often were solitary
bees) that people noticed for the first time, pollinating their flowers
or vegetables. They were so use to seeing honeybees that they totally
missed all the other pollinators.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine