"Are all ferals doomed?"

 

On Long Island, a mostly suburban, mixed small agriculture area, there
seem to be a number of bee trees and swarms in houses/buildings to
indicate that the feral colonies are continuing to reproduce and
repopulate the area to some extent.  We don't have statistics on how
long these colonies live but they seem to live long enough to throw
swarms to at least replace themselves.

 

"Are pollination services in greater demand?"

 

Depends on the crop.  On long Island, orchards are small, seldom over
ten acres.  There are generally a lot of acres of potential housing for
bees of many types within flight range of the orchards and if the
weather is decent over bloom, feral bees are sufficient.  The raspberry
growers seem to feel they are necessary but they are getting smaller in
size and they have little competition of other bloom.  Labor is pushing
them to Pick-your-own but the patches are getting smaller.  It is the
almost-retired farmers who are keeping these going.  Our biggest
pollination crop is pumpkins (agri-tainment in the fall with pumpkin
picking, corn maze, hay ride, decorative corn shocks and mums 75 miles
from NYC.) of 25 to 70 acres in an area but we have a native squash bee
that meets the needs most years.  Lack of honey bees may actually allow
these bees to flourish without the competition.  The growers don't
necessarily need full pollination for size.  They want a lot of round
pumpkins.  They are not convinced that pollination by honeybees yields a
net profit.  Even then, there are several growers in each area and they
figure that if they spend money on bees, the neighbor benefits just as
much.  One grower told me that the Cooperative Extension agent had told
him that honeybees would probably only pay for themselves in one out of
seven years.  His conclusion, not worth it, but he is happy to see bees
in his patch, figuring someone around rented bees and he is getting the
benefit.  Anybody got an electric bee fence (Force field wall or dome)
that is easily erected over a field? :-)

 

 

Raymond J. Lackey  -  Sweet Pines Apiary

mail: 1260 Walnut Avenue, Bohemia, NY 11716-2176 

web page: http://www.tianca.com/tianca2.html

email home: [log in to unmask]

 


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