In message <[log in to unmask]>, Bill Truesdell
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>I have a nice mix of honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees ( as well
>as flies) that do a good job of pollinating everything. When Varroa
>struck and drove many local beekeepers out of keeping bees, I got many
>calls about different "bees" (or "flies"- which often were solitary
>bees) that people noticed for the first time, pollinating their flowers
>or vegetables. They were so use to seeing honeybees that they totally
>missed all the other pollinators.
Thank you for a detailed and interesting post on solitary bees.

I have been told that strawberry growers here, who use polytunnels,
import Dutch bumble bees (not native) at high cost and with a high loss
rate. Some beekeepers do provide nuclei, but not all know how to manage
them to work the pollen and minimise losses.

I have been led to believe it would be worthwhile trying to collect
Osmia Rufa, our native red mason bee, which overwinters as an adult and
can be introduced at just the right time into a polytunnel. I know
nothing about this way of working and have no figures on numbers. I
would be grateful if you could point me to sources on these matters so I
can begin to encourage staff at the agricultural/horticultural College I
do the beekeeping course in to consider working with them. I suspect it
would be relatively easy to attract them, overwinter them and organise
the breeding so as to redistribute a significant proportion to the wild
and keep the genetic diversity by rotation of stock. My main source is
the Oxford Bee Company in the UK and I have tracked down some good web
sites with information on solitary and bumble bees, but nothing about
polytunnels and stocking rates. I do have nesting boxes (tubes in tubes)
and intend to distribute them earlier next season.

I realise there are large numbers involved in the work you reported, but
wondered if the disease problems you mentioned could have arisen because
of inbreeding or because of a consistently restricted diet.

Thanks again
--
James Kilty