There were some trials in Maine of BO bees in blueberry fields. I
attended discussions of the results by the researcher- who was a strong
proponent of solitary bees- and my conclusion was they are good
pollinators but only for small scale pollination.

They cost a lot more per acre to maintain, especially if you are a large
operation. Often, in studies like the one I heard, costs are all
relegated to material without figuring in labor, the real driver of
costs. I figured in labor and numbers of solitary bees to cover a large
operation and it gets expensive quickly.

For a small operation, BO or Mason bees are great, especially for
apples. They do a better job on them (and several other fruit trees)
than do honey bees. But, one hive of honeybees trumps the BO bees just
by sheer numbers. That is what was shown in the trials in Maine. The did
a great job on the blueberries, but to cover hundreds of acres you had
to have honeybees. The cost difference made it no contest.

And for someone like me, with fruit trees and vegetables (pollination
was the reason I started beekeeping), there is no good reason to create
a solitary bee presence, first since it is already there and second,
that my bees do an excellent, albeit inefficient, job of pollinating all
I grow.

 I was responsible for the upkeep of USN ships in the Pacific. It was
interesting that we paid the same for a job in a yard that would use
five men as for the same work in another country which used one. Labor
costs canceled out any benefit. The quality was the same. But the other
benefits were not. Sailors liked the inefficient yard better because
their own paychecks bought more in the country. Great liberty port.

But back to bees.

For honeybees, the benefit  is honey, which makes any desire to shift
moot, since it is an income generator, pays for the bees and sweetens my
cereal.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine