James Fischer wrote: and wrote and wrote :)

Wow. I am not in the position to defend the paper quoted, but I do have 
some observations from real life here in Maine. Blueberry pollination 
has become big business and the reason is increased yields with 
additional bees. The increases have not been marginal. The variable that 
caused the increase was honeybees. There is a point where more bees do 
yield a marginal increase, but I do not know what that is with blueberries.

Also, in 1985 when the USDA study was written, the US was free of both 
mites, or at least we though we were free of tracheal, even though it 
may have been around. So there were plenty of feral honeybees as well as 
non-commercial beekeeper's bees to do the pollinating. We have seen this 
with squash in Maine. After beekeepers quit because of Tracheal and then 
Varroa, pumpkin farmers and apple growers wanted bees for pollination. 
There was a observable drop in production.

I started keeping bees for pollination of my apples and veggies. I also 
noticed an increase in production after I started. (about $9.6 billion).

I tend to think that it is impossible to quantify the number of billions 
of dollars of farm products that pollination produces, since first you 
have to remove all honeybees from agriculture, measure, and then put 
them back in. That is impossible. How do you quantify the add on that my 
bees deliver by being there to pollinate, for free, all the gardens for 
two or more miles around me?

As far as the USDA having the final say, I have seen studies that 
promote the value of solitary bees over honey bees that were junk 
science. They were written by proponents of solitary bees and the 
studies were poorly done (honeybees were actually doing some, if not 
most of the pollinating). So we get down to what you want to say is 
definitive and what you do not. And since my bees have added $9.6 
billion, we can start with that as a baseline.

Bill Truesdell and his billion dollar bees
Bath, Maine

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