actaully, i agree with peter...the xerces society is a problem for us.  the location where we host our annual treatment free beekeeping conference has an ecologist (and a board of directors) that believes that honeybees are a threat to native pollinators.  they make accommodations for us to have live bees on site for hive openings, but it a compromise on both our end and theirs.

since i spend a fair amount of time near apiaries, i've been collecting photographs of native pollinators near kept bees.  this isn't any kind of "difinitive" study, but an illustration to those of a particular belief that populations of native bees do just fine near apiaries.

on another topic, dwv.

when we were first keeping bees without treatments (8 or 9 years ago), when i'd notice dwv, it was a very regular pattern to the wing...it looked like a "bite" had been taken out of the inside of the wing on each side.

since that time, when i see deformed wings (in our apiary and others), the wings are "shriveled"...this looks quite different from what we used to see.

any insights? are these different levels of infection?  different viruses?  different bees?

deknow

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