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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 9 Jan 2014 15:19:21 -0500
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Another alarmist study which creates fear out of hot air:

> this study demonstrates that the recommended number of honeybees required to provide crop pollination across Europe has risen 4.9 times as fast as honeybee stocks between 2005 and 2010. Consequently, honeybee stocks were insufficient to supply [more than] 90% of demands in 22 countries studied.

* They state that the Recommended Stocking Rate indicates that many more bees are needed than exist, but they do not point out that the Recommended Stocking Rate may grossly overstate the need.

* They state that as a result of this arithmetic there aren't enough bees to pollinate more than 90% of the crops, a weird way of stating that there ARE ENOUGH bees to pollinate 90% of the crops (based on their arithmetic, which in turn is based on the Recommended Stocking Rate)

* To their credit, they point out the flaw in their own study:

> Understanding of the pollination service demands of crops is presently very limited, as evidenced by the wide range of Recommended Stocking Rates.

* They FAIL to demonstrate a pollinator shortfall. In fact they cite the paper which states the opposite:

Aizen MA, Garibaldi LM, Cunningham SA, Klein AM (2008) Long term trends in crop yield and production reveal no current pollination shortage but increasing pollinator dependency. Curr Biol 18: 1–4.

PLB

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