From: "James Fischer"
Subject: Re: [BEE-L] Pitting wild bees against managed honey bees

>>  While we agree that extensive use of managed honey bees may
>>  be problematic for wildlife conservation and we should control
>>  the number of hives in native, protected areas
>
>The argument above is phrased as if it were a foregone conclusion.  It is
>anything but.

Maybe not. But if not then you need a good argument to refute it.
>
>
>A rising tide raises all boats, and with more bees, there is more
>pollination, and hence more blooms each year in an "unmanaged" or "natural"
>area.
>
>More blooms are a good thing for all species.  (While massive numbers of
>hives can create a nectar vacuum, this is an ecologically rare event, and is
>only possible with hundreds of hives per "yard", and is a self-correcting
>problem, as the beekeeper realizes that his hives are best placed in
>"productive" areas, where there is more than sufficient forage.)
>
>Wild bees have much shorter ranges, many have far shorter life cycles, and
>may prefer a very selective set of blooms.
>Honey bees have wider foraging ranges, and stand a good chance of helping to
>pollinate (and hence propagate) "everything" blooming.
>
>So the overt introduction of honey bees can, over a few seasons, create more
>forage for the wild bees, and the proof that different species of bees have
>happily coexisted since well before man climbed down out of the trees to
>learn from that famous black monolith is the well-known point that bees of
>different species pay close attention to each other's pheromones.

So far this is not an argument in favour of European honeybees. Rather the opposite. What you are effectually saying is that honey bees are increasing pollination beyond natural background levels, which in effect means some plants will now be proliferating beyond what they did in the natural environment.

In both our countries honey bees are not native so may well have detrimental effects. In Australia most of the pollination of the native tree flora was, and may still be done, by birds and mammals. One reason for this is that none of them flower regularly. Insect pollen dependant species need something that will flower yearly, at reliable times.

Does it mean we should not have honey bees. No more than we shouldn’t have carrots or almonds or apples etc..

Geoff Manning

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