4 ms·

Do you mean to say that the ones I see in grass and parks are some beekeeper's? I'm doubtful, but that would be pretty interesting. Are there that many amateur

by tbihl 9y ago

Do you mean to say that the ones I see in grass and parks are some beekeeper's? I'm doubtful, but that would be pretty interesting. Are there that many amateur beekeeper's? I figured they were much less common a backyard project than chickens.

Neliquat 9y ago
Pretty common, i know of 3 in my rural neighborhood.
jly 9y ago
There are very many backyard beekeepers, even in urban areas. I have a pair of hives on my small city lot and most neighbors don't even know. This isn't uncommon these days. Having said that, there are wild bees, and bees 'escape' from beekeepers by swarming and forming new hives on their own. They try to reproduce by creating new hives as frequently as they can.
- tptacek 9y ago
  I guess my question would be, why should I care about isolated feral honey bee colonies? They're not a native species; they don't "belong" here. As long as beekeepers can cost-effectively maintain their pollination capabilities (perhaps at marginally higher cost), what's the public policy implication of CCD?
  - lostlogin 9y ago
    Poison builds up in comb and honey from the agents required to treat mites. It's making beekeeping harder, and the relationship between bee keepers harder (e.g. People treat diseases out of sync with each other, messing up the treatment process as bees drift to each others hives, spreading disease). Pollination as a service is expensive and lastly, it's a bit sad walking past a feral colony that's been there many years and seeing it dead.
    - tptacek 9y ago
      But this isn't unknowable. The prices for pollination are basically public, as are the prices for precursors of bee colonies. If beekeeping is getting untenably expensive, that should be reflected in both those prices. Why isn't it?
      - lostlogin 9y ago
        Here in NZ, Manuka honey. It commands a serious price and is what everyone is after. Last season bordered on disastrous due to the weather but the aim of the big players is to get Manuka. If you haven't heard of it I'm not surprised - it's a dark, not particularly nice honey that has some pretty amazing anti-bacterial properties. It's being used in all sorts of things, cosmetics, medications, dressings, foods etc.
        tptacek 9y ago
        If CCD is causing a real economic problem in the US, we should see its impact in the prices of pollination services and in the cost of colony precursors. Do we?
        lostlogin 9y ago
        Good question. We see it here in the price of hives and nuc colonies. It's gone up as they take more effort to build and maintain.
brownbat 9y ago
Not all bees are honey bees. GP was talking about Apis mellifera. You probably encountered Bombus impatiens. Bumble bees aren't honey bees just like buffalo aren't wild milk cows. Some have recommended farmers replace pollination with hardier indigenous mason bees or bumble bees, rather than use domesticated honey bees, in response to CCD.
- nsxwolf 9y ago
  The bees I've seen swarming my garbage all my life are definitely not bumble bees.
  - steanne 9y ago
    might not be bees at all. yellowjackets like trash.
    - reitanqild 9y ago
      Had to look up yellowjackets. Here's what Wikipedia says: Yellowjacket or yellow jacket is the common name in North America for predatory social wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket
      - bluejekyll 9y ago
        Hornets are also members of this sub-family. These are really nasty. There are many wasps that are not very aggressive, they'll sting you if you literally hit their nest, or accidentally sit on one, but hornets and yellowjackets are very aggressive near their nests, really nasty bugs to accidentally encounter when mowing the grass or sitting on a bench when they have built homes. I would say most people would easily be able to distinguish between a honeybee and any wasp (once shown what each looks like obviously).
    - lostlogin 9y ago
      An interesting thing that allows the killing of these wasps without harming bees - they go for protein in a big way, while bees usually don't. http://www.doc.govt.nz/waspcontrol http://www.doc.govt.nz/waspcontrol
lostlogin 9y ago
The standard range is given as 3km, but have been observed far further out than that at times. Given that they communicate to each other where food sources are, they can efficiently harvest for a long way off. It's also surprising where hives are and you can quite easily hide one away such that it's not easily noticed by neighbours - an entrance facing a high fence or wall forces them to fly way up before moving horizontally. I have no idea how common it is in the States but poking about suggests that here in NZ there are about half a million hives. There are about 5550 total beekeeping enterprises in New Zealand, of which only 803 were commercial. Anything less that 50 hives was considered hobbyist.

by tbihl 9y ago

Neliquat 9y ago

Pretty common, i know of 3 in my rural neighborhood.

jly 9y ago

There are very many backyard beekeepers, even in urban areas. I have a pair of hives on my small city lot and most neighbors don't even know. This isn't uncommon these days. Having said that, there are wild bees, and bees 'escape' from beekeepers by swarming and forming new hives on their own. They try to reproduce by creating new hives as frequently as they can.

tptacek 9y ago
I guess my question would be, why should I care about isolated feral honey bee colonies? They're not a native species; they don't "belong" here. As long as beekeepers can cost-effectively maintain their pollination capabilities (perhaps at marginally higher cost), what's the public policy implication of CCD?
- lostlogin 9y ago
  Poison builds up in comb and honey from the agents required to treat mites. It's making beekeeping harder, and the relationship between bee keepers harder (e.g. People treat diseases out of sync with each other, messing up the treatment process as bees drift to each others hives, spreading disease). Pollination as a service is expensive and lastly, it's a bit sad walking past a feral colony that's been there many years and seeing it dead.
  - tptacek 9y ago
    But this isn't unknowable. The prices for pollination are basically public, as are the prices for precursors of bee colonies. If beekeeping is getting untenably expensive, that should be reflected in both those prices. Why isn't it?
    - lostlogin 9y ago
      Here in NZ, Manuka honey. It commands a serious price and is what everyone is after. Last season bordered on disastrous due to the weather but the aim of the big players is to get Manuka. If you haven't heard of it I'm not surprised - it's a dark, not particularly nice honey that has some pretty amazing anti-bacterial properties. It's being used in all sorts of things, cosmetics, medications, dressings, foods etc.
      - tptacek 9y ago
        If CCD is causing a real economic problem in the US, we should see its impact in the prices of pollination services and in the cost of colony precursors. Do we?
        lostlogin 9y ago
        Good question. We see it here in the price of hives and nuc colonies. It's gone up as they take more effort to build and maintain.

brownbat 9y ago

Not all bees are honey bees. GP was talking about Apis mellifera. You probably encountered Bombus impatiens. Bumble bees aren't honey bees just like buffalo aren't wild milk cows. Some have recommended farmers replace pollination with hardier indigenous mason bees or bumble bees, rather than use domesticated honey bees, in response to CCD.

nsxwolf 9y ago
The bees I've seen swarming my garbage all my life are definitely not bumble bees.
- steanne 9y ago
  might not be bees at all. yellowjackets like trash.
  - reitanqild 9y ago
    Had to look up yellowjackets. Here's what Wikipedia says: Yellowjacket or yellow jacket is the common name in North America for predatory social wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket
    - bluejekyll 9y ago
      Hornets are also members of this sub-family. These are really nasty. There are many wasps that are not very aggressive, they'll sting you if you literally hit their nest, or accidentally sit on one, but hornets and yellowjackets are very aggressive near their nests, really nasty bugs to accidentally encounter when mowing the grass or sitting on a bench when they have built homes. I would say most people would easily be able to distinguish between a honeybee and any wasp (once shown what each looks like obviously).
  - lostlogin 9y ago
    An interesting thing that allows the killing of these wasps without harming bees - they go for protein in a big way, while bees usually don't. http://www.doc.govt.nz/waspcontrol http://www.doc.govt.nz/waspcontrol

lostlogin 9y ago

The standard range is given as 3km, but have been observed far further out than that at times. Given that they communicate to each other where food sources are, they can efficiently harvest for a long way off. It's also surprising where hives are and you can quite easily hide one away such that it's not easily noticed by neighbours - an entrance facing a high fence or wall forces them to fly way up before moving horizontally. I have no idea how common it is in the States but poking about suggests that here in NZ there are about half a million hives. There are about 5550 total beekeeping enterprises in New Zealand, of which only 803 were commercial. Anything less that 50 hives was considered hobbyist.