On 21/12/2013 1:30 AM, Peter L Borst wrote:


> The difference between the actual and expected number of rentals can be explained several ways: 1) crops are not being adequately pollinated; 2) crops are adequately pollinated and recommendations for honey bees are greater than required, and/or 3) native bees are contributing more than previously recognized.
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> Of course, you can see that the need for pollination is greatly oversold! Even if a the US hives were moved 10 times a year (which they aren’t) they could never meet the requirement of 30 million pollinating units! Of his explanations, 1 is out: crops ARE adequately pollinated. 3 is true, native bees do contribute, as you know. But the real reason is 2, the recommendations are grossly exaggerated.

The fourth reason is that in crops that are not totally dependent on 
bees, the growers simply do not want to spend the money, or do not 
believe they will make a difference.  There are a lot of these bods out 
there.

Geoff Manning

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