Sent to the Bee List and the Bombus List with copies to other parties

     I believe I know almost all the beekeepers in this immediate area, and
where the bees are kept, though perhaps a hive or two might slip by my "net."
For this reason, as I was studying and photographing goldenrod and asters
last fall, I was impressed by the number of locations where I found foraging
honeybees where, to my knowledge, there were no domestic bees within range.

    I did not announce this observation last fall, thinking I'd wait to check
on spring survival. Now I think I am definitely seeing a trend in the area. I
believe many of the honeybees I'm seeing are feral, and have been feral for
more than one season.

    I'd like to ask observant beekeepers and others to look at prime bee
forage plants this spring in areas where you know there are no kept bees, to
see if you find honeybees foraging, and report on your finds. Compare with
past years.

   (I know this kind of informal survey is scorned by the "peer review"
folks, and one of my dreams is to do a better job of scientific evaluation of
the population trends. If I could figure out a way to fund this AND make a
living, I'd like to spend the remainder of my working years studying
pollinator populations)

    But surveys and long-term observations by interested people do have
value. The Audubon Society and other groups do surveys and counts each year,
and do get a feel for trends by the averages of many, even though individual
reports may be highly variable.

    Since 1990, I have been impressed by the lack of bees in the area, not
only honeybees, but also wild bees of many other species. The only one I see
whose population does not seem to have been depressed are the large carpenter
bee, Xylocopa virginica.  I believe I know the reason why this one did not
show the impact, which I'll come back to later.   I believe the population
crash bottomed out and started to recover about four years ago. Again I think
it applied to most bee species, not just honeybees.

     I have long expected that honeybees would find mechanisms of varroa mite
resistance. This needs to be further studied. Right now the only efforts I
know of to study resistance are in kept bees. I think the wild bees need a
much closer look. And I realize that is more difficult.

    I have also long thought that pesticide use patterns are much more
significant for pollinator populations in the end, than varroa mites or other
parasites/diseases. This is from my observations of the bee crash that
occurred in 1990 following the previous late fall massive mosquito spraying
project, and the continuing losses from cotton spraying. I saw these losses
in my own bees, and it was reflected in the wild bee populations as well. In
the mid '90's I could go to a prime bee forage species like goldenrod and
find practically no bees unless there were honeybees kept in the vicinity.  I
remember watching one large patch of goldenrod near Kingstree, SC for an hour
on a sunny afternoon, and seeing NO bees whatsoever, only a few wasps. I'm
going to try to get back to that site sometime soon to see if they have
returned.

    I am now finding bees almost everywhere. The ratio of species varies from
place to place, but most of the spring "bee attractors" are getting good
activity. It is also becoming rare to find a place without at least a few
honeybees.

   In this area Bradford pear is very common and highly attractive. Perhaps
you can find a similar plant that "always" has bees working it.

    GM cotton has in recent years, created a great reduction in spraying
during the critical early bloom period, when almost all bees are foraging in
the cotton fields. Cotton is everywhere around here, and there is little
other forage during the early bloom of cotton. I think this is a highly
relevant fact both for domestic and feral honeybees and for bumblebees, for
which cotton is a prime forage blossom. Xylocopa is dormant by this time,
though, so it is not affected by cotton spraying. Widespread mosquito
spraying has also only occurred during dormancy. The farms around here are
dotted with old tobacco packhouses, which are full of carpenter bees. I think
this is a premium pollination resource for early spring bloom. The buildings
are almost all abandoned, some are falling down. But no one cares about the
carpenter bees, and no one poisons them as suburbanites are apt to do.

   I am noticing a high proportion of honeybees seen foraging that are a
decided gray color. This interests me, in that I have never kept a gray bee,
nor do I know of any other domestic bees in the area that are gray. The gray
color is a characteristic of Caucasian bees, is it not?  They have never been
popular here, and I have no experience with them.  Has someone introduced
them at some point, and do they have a varroa resistance mechanism that the
Italians and Carniolans don't have? Which has caused a gradual rise in their
proportion in feral populations?

    I am thinking that the crash in pollinator populations was caused by a
coincidence of two factors, pesticide misuse and varroa mites. I believe that
we are also seeing some significant (but not complete) recovery.  I'm looking
for confirmation or refutation of this.

    I am eager to hear your comments.  I would especially like to devise ways
to quantify and document these general observations. Right now I am
concentrating on closeup photography.  I am also working hard to learn to
identify bees species, so my records will be more accurate.  I am also
wondering if this is a local thing, a southeastern US thing, or a general
North American thing.

Relevant web addresses:
http://pollinator.com/goldenrod.htm        Fall flower visitors
http://pollinator.com/aster.htm               More fall flower visitors
http://pollinator.com/gallery/February/february_flowers.htm   February buds
and bees



Dave Green      SC   USA
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com  (now searchable)