Comment by MostlyStable

17 hours ago

My wife and I had wanted honey bees for a long time, but when we finally moved to a place that we could have had them, we noticed that we regularly saw at least 5 native bee species. We decided not to get a hive since they compete for resources and can spread disease. Given that there are neighbors that have them within about a mile, and that either those or feral colonies are close enough that we also see honey bees around, I'm not sure how much difference it makes, but we don't regret the decision.

19 comments

MostlyStable

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bregma  12 hours ago

There's not as much crossover as you might think. In North America the native pollinators are adapted to the native plants and can't even pollinate the introduced eurasian ones. And it goes the other way: honeybees can't pollinate the native plants, only the introduced eurasian ones.

If course, if you're in Europe, honeybees are the native pollinators. At least around the Mediterranean.

  • MostlyStable  5 hours ago

    While I haven't done an intense study of it, I very frequently see multiple bee species, natives and honey bees, on the same flowers. This includes things like raspberries, mint, dandelions, various fruit blossoms, as well as vegetables. I'm sure there is specialization in at least some of the natives, but some of them, the bumblebees especially (or maybe that's just because they are bigger and easier to see), seem to be pretty generalist foragers much like the honey bees

  • pfdietz  10 hours ago

    So, what you're saying is that honeybees are facilitating the spread of invasive plants in North America? Seems like a definite negative.

    • adolph  5 hours ago

      See also earthworms facilitating spread of invasives:

        Invasive species of earthworms from the suborder Lumbricina have been 
  expanding their range in North America. . . . Their introduction to North 
  America has had marked effects on the nutrient cycles and soil profiles in 
  temperate forests. . . . Some species of trees and other plants may be 
  incapable of surviving such changes in available nutrients. This change in 
  the plant diversity in turn affects other organisms and often leads to 
  increased invasions of other exotic species as well as overall forest 
  decline. They are considered one of the most invasive animals in the 
  Midwestern United States along with feral swine.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_A...

Joel_Mckay  17 hours ago

The mite has already hit most wild populations hard, and tending hives requires quite a bit of time to learn. Planting local wild flowers is often helpful, and requires just a few minutes. =3

2muchcoffeeman  14 hours ago

Can you “build colonies” for native species?

  • Modified3019  14 hours ago

    Yes, though you need to know what sort of nesting sites they like, and what sources of food they need. Many native bees need certain plants to get the nutritional profile they are adapted for, and don’t do so well on nothing but dandelions and typical ornamental flowers. They also need food sources throughout their active time.

    For mason and leaf cutter bees, a box sheltered from rain and filled with Japanese knotweed tubes (don’t grow it yourself, it’s highly invasive) works well for “I like seeing solitary bees around, but want minimum efforts”. There are tons of videos you can find on the subject.

    Drilling various sized holes in wood blocks also often works. The nice thing about “solitary” bees (which are often quite communal), is they don’t have much of a drive to defend a nest, and would much rather fly away than bite/poke you. I’ve walked alfalfa fields full of them, and while the loud buzzing was a bit disconcerting, they couldn’t care less about me. Leafcutter bees are used for alfalfa because they don’t mind how alfalfa flowers work mechanically. European Honeybees will just chew through the base of the flower to get the nectar, avoiding pollination.

    For other bees, there is highly likely to be a native bee enthusiast group in your local area that can give guidance on native flower mixes and possible setups for habitat.

    Here in western Oregon, the hazelnut orchards on the sandy soil near rivers have actually become a great nesting place for multiple species of beautiful green metallic “sweat” bees: https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/gardenecologylab/2017/11/13/po...

    They like the semi-compacted neutral to slightly alkaline sandy soil that’s clear of weeds, hence a long term orchard is perfect, especially as we’ve moved to softer insecticide chemistries that generally preserve beneficial insects. Offhand I think I start seeing them filling the ground with little holes in may when I start monitoring for Filbertworm moths.

    And don’t forget bumblebees. While it’s a hated introduced weed for growers, it turns out that Sharppoint Fluvellen in the fescue grass fields is loved by bumblebees because it happily continues to flower in the late summer/fall when everything else has dried up or run it’s course.

    • ilamont  3 hours ago

      > Japanese knotweed tubes (don’t grow it yourself, it’s highly invasive)

      Last year I was lamenting to a neighbor that bamboo doesn't survive the harsh winters where we live. He disputed that.

      "There's some growing down the road, next to the ditch," he said. "It comes back every year. It's everywhere."

      I was wondering what the heck he was talking about and then I realized it was Japanese knotweed. The segmented branches do look like thin bamboo, and he claimed that at one time it was sold at the local garden center as "bamboo."

  • chongli  14 hours ago

    You just need to supply the native plants they prefer to pollinate, they’ll do the rest. If you’re wondering about whether you can harvest honey from them, I don’t think so. Most native pollinator species don’t produce honey.

    Bumblebees do produce a kind of honey, but it’s much thinner and less concentrated than proper honey (which has had most of the water evaporated off by the wing beats of the bees).

    • bombcar  11 hours ago

      A thousand years of effort might be able to "domesticate" the bumblebee and make it produce something akin to usable amounts of honey - but unlikely to be worth it.

      2 replies →

  • t-3  6 hours ago

    Most of the native bees/wasps/flies that are important for pollination are solitary, but you can still help them with nesting areas.

    Mason bees can be relatively easy: drill some small holes in a post and let it be. You can also get way more complicated with it.

    https://colinpurrington.com/2019/05/guide-to-diy-mason-bee-h...

    Bumblebee make nests for breeding, you can sometimes find nests in birdhouses or in gaps of buildings, but they apparently usually go for old mouse burrows. I've seen guides similar to the following, but covering a nest of dried grass with a clay pot, with a buried hose connecting the inside of the nest to the outside.

    https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/20800500/BumbleBeeRear...

    Planting native flowers and shrubs can also provide habitat for many insects.

FarmerPotato  7 hours ago

For North America, you can read much about native bees (and more) at Xerces.org.

They have many regional habitat-planting guides. Two books covering native bees:

  Managing Alternative Pollinators

  Attracting Native Pollinators

C'mon, you know you want to join a 'Society for Invertebrate Preservation'.