Hi all

A lot is made of how bad it is for honey bees to be kept in large apiaries and moved from state to state, as if this were completely unnatural. Fact is, in some areas honey bees aggregate in huge numbers and migrate hundreds of miles on their own.

> In an agricultural area some 38 kilometers north of the city of Bangalore (Karnataka, India), a high concentration of nesting dorsata  (as many as 2000 colonies in 11 trees within a 5-7km radius) is found. ... 630 colonies of Apis dorsata nesting in a banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) in the village of Ramagovindapura, near Nandagudi, Bangalore.

>  Some of the Apis dorsata  bees are present at the location on a year round basis but the majority of the colonies migrate to parts unknown during part of the year. Typically the large majority of the bees begin to arrive in October of each year, the population swells to the thousands by late January, honey is sometimes harvested in March and the bees will depart by April leaving a few colonies behind.

> the recently formed organization, "Indian Pollinator Initiative" (IPI), has decided to pursue the nomination of this important area for recognition as a World Heritage Site.  If nominated and hopefully selected as a WHS the Nandagudi/Ramagovindapura bee trees will be unique as the world’s first honey bee WHS.

Reddy, M. S., & Petersen, S. (2010). Nominating the Bee Trees of Ramagovindapura as a World Heritage Site. 한국양봉학회지 제, 25(2).

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