Noticed many/any honey bees this summer?

[Bcool]

Sadly, in this particular area of the southern tip of Van Island, I've rarely seen any this summer. Flowers everywhere, both cultivated and native - but none of the usual summer buzzing and bustling. :-(

We've got apples on our apple 'stick', but I saw the hummers at those blossoms which may well account for the apples. The blackberry bushes are loaded with fruit now, but again the hummers and Sphinx moths were very busy at those blossoms too - very few bees.

I read a report that said the honey bees got infected with a species of mite that got imported into North America on an Australian honey bee variety that was imported to supposedly "improve" our NA stocks. When will they ever learn?!! :roll:

I was surprised to learn that: "There are no honey bees native to the Americas. In 1622, European colonists brought the dark bee (A. m. mellifera) to the Americas, followed later by Italian bees (A. m. ligustica) and others. Many of the crops that depend on honey bees for pollination have also been imported since colonial times. Escaped swarms (known as "wild" bees, but actually feral) spread rapidly as far as the Great Plains, usually preceding the colonists. Honey bees did not naturally cross the Rocky Mountains; they were carried by ship to California in the early 1850s." Honey bee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I always assumed they were native to NA, so if that's the case, I wonder if there are enough native pollinators of various types to fill the gap until the honey bee stocks hopefully recover?

Anyway, I'd be very interested in hearing about the honey bee situation in the very varied areas of BC? TIA

 

[Tonington]

Just bumblebees, and not even very many of those.

 

[Praxius]

And I've also heard that this past year, their population has boosted..... I still haven't had my coffee for the morning yet, so I don't have the energy to go searching online for the source.... but here where I live in NS, I've seen plenty bumbling around..... more then what I usually saw during the summer at least.

Perhaps they're dying off..... then again, perhaps a reason why their population seems to dwindle at times is due to migration to different areas.

I always assumed they were native to NA, so if that's the case, I wonder if there are enough native pollinators of various types to fill the gap until the honey bee stocks hopefully recover?

The natives here seemed to do just fine without them long before Europeans came along.

 

[Bcool]

And I've also heard that this past year, their population has boosted..... I still haven't had my coffee for the morning yet, so I don't have the energy to go searching online for the source.... but here where I live in NS, I've seen plenty bumbling around..... more then what I usually saw during the summer at least.

Well, if you haven't had your coffee yet I'm surprised you could find the energy to tap out this reply. Thank you! When you say you've seen plenty bumbling around, are you referring to bumble bees or honey bees?

Perhaps they're dying off..... then again, perhaps a reason why their population seems to dwindle at times is due to migration to different areas.

Apparently it's not migration. Honey producers and commercial honey bee breeders all over North America are being hit with this, in some areas to the point of having to totally restock with uninfected bees from Europe if they can afford it. Fruit & veggie growers are using chemical pollinating products in hard hit areas. It's the S. US that's been hit the hardest so far, that's where the Australian imports were introduced.

The natives here seemed to do just fine without them long before Europeans came along.

Yes, very true. But apparently the import of non-native plants, the clearing of vast amounts of native plants and trees and the heavy use of industrial and agricultural pesticides since we lot came busting in has wreaked a lot of havoc amongst the native insect world unfortunately - many are extinct. :-( (Mind you, the Black Widow spiders seem to be thriving very nicely here, especially in our workshop - I swear I saw one toddling back to her lair carrying a full grown mouse! Ack!!)

 

[CDNBear]

Nope, it's been quiet here. Not even in the Deer crops.

We just came back from checking the trail cams, and we walked through our field of clover, maybe a dozen bumbles, and swarms of other smaller insects, but I haven't seen a single honey bee.

Even the wild honey bee hive that was smaller then usual last year, didn't spring to life this year.

Now that's not a real big sign, we've been hunting this tract for years and it's moved a few times. We may not have found its new spot yet. But the lack of honey bees on the clover, is troubling.

 

[bill barilko]

Notta heckuva lotta from what I've seen.

 

[Kreskin]

I have a couple of small shrubs that flower in July and bees go crazy over. They were pretty busy again this year.

 

[Praxius]

Well, if you haven't had your coffee yet I'm surprised you could find the energy to tap out this reply.

Clicking on a link to a an already bookmarked page that's already up on my screen is easier then googling a search with proper key words and locating specific news articles I saw months ago, reading through those various articles to confirm they're what I'm looking for, then linking them and quoting them back in here.

Thank you! When you say you've seen plenty bumbling around, are you referring to bumble bees or honey bees?

Both actually, in fact I've also seen a few other similar species I don't remember seeing before..... including about 30 minutes ago on my smoke break where I saw, on a dandelion, something that looked like and moved like a fly, but had the hornet/bee markings and had a pile of pollen all over him.

Apparently it's not migration. Honey producers and commercial honey bee breeders all over North America are being hit with this, in some areas to the point of having to totally restock with uninfected bees from Europe if they can afford it. Fruit & veggie growers are using chemical pollinating products in hard hit areas. It's the S. US that's been hit the hardest so far, that's where the Australian imports were introduced.

Here's one report I saw back in May:
‘Incredible swarm of bees’ alarms Kitchener man
TheRecord.com - Local - ?Incredible swarm of bees? alarms Kitchener man

...... The swarm behaviour is completely typical for honey bees. It’s the way wild bees repopulate their colonies. What is atypical is the volume of swarms buzzing about, looking for a new home this spring.

“We had a very mild winter and good September, so the bees went into winter in good shape,” said Paul Kelly, the official University of Guelph beekeeper. “They came through with a larger population than usual, so the swarming is more pronounced and earlier than in other years.”

For the past few years, beekeepers were seeing at least 30 per cent of their colonies die off from weather and disease over the winter. Kelly predicts that will be closer to 10 per cent or less this year.

“I’m getting calls every day about swarms,” he said.

What Bondy saw in his backyard on Old Country Place was a group of bees that had split off from an overpopulated colony, with the queen in tow. It happens every year just before the main nectar flow, Kelly said........

And that's just Ontario.

Bee populations rebound in New Brunswick
CBC News - New Brunswick - Bee populations rebound in New Brunswick

Beekeepers across New Brunswick say colonies have bounced back after a devastating year in 2009.

Last spring, many found their bees had died over the winter, but things are looking up this year, beekeepers say.

"The bees seem to be really rebounding this year," said Claude Hachey, a honey producer from Bathurst.

"We're having a really hard time keeping up. Mind you, that could change in a week or two, but I haven't seen bees this vigorous in a couple of years now.".........

Bees thrive in the Shuswap
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/93559384.html

........ But the problems in the United States, such as what’s been called colony collapse disorder, are likely due to a number of factors related to the way huge commercial operations run their hives. Factors suggested include stress from shipping bees long distances across several U.S. states to pollinate crops, mono-cropping where only one crop is grown on several acres, inbreeding, chemicals and more.

“You always hear the bad news, never the good news,” says Stagg. “Even in B.C., central Vancouver Island lost a lot of their honey bees over the winter due to various things. The rest of the province has had the best winter, haven’t had success like this in over 20 years. That’s the majority of the province. But you have this small pocket around Cowichan that lose their bees.”

One of the Shuswap’s successful beekeepers is Silver Creek’s Bob Hack. He has been keeping bees since 1999. He started with two nucs – nucleus colonies – which are small honey bee colonies centred around a queen. He hasn’t had to buy one since........

^ These reports are all of this year and in the last couple of months.

Yes, very true. But apparently the import of non-native plants, the clearing of vast amounts of native plants and trees and the heavy use of industrial and agricultural pesticides since we lot came busting in has wreaked a lot of havoc amongst the native insect world unfortunately - many are extinct. :-( (Mind you, the Black Widow spiders seem to be thriving very nicely here, especially in our workshop - I swear I saw one toddling back to her lair carrying a full grown mouse! Ack!!)

True, but people need to consider that Nature isn't as flimsy as most would think and Nature is quite resilient..... sometimes more then we humans are. There are many species around the world many thought were extinct due to human action, then suddenly news reports pop up with reports of sightings and findings of those same species thriving in certain areas where they never thought they'd be.

I wouldn't count them out just yet.

 

[Jabberwock]

Vancouver Island has been hit hard by the mite problem recently. There is a "bee quarantine" on the island, no one is supposed to bring bees over from the mainland, only from other places in the world that have unaffected bees. Unfortunately one person ignored the quarantine, and brought three hives over from the mainland. Now 80 percent of the islands hives have been lost due to mites.

I spoke to the lady at Babe's Bees, they lost the majority of their hives last year. The place I go for sour cherries didn't have any this year because they couldn't get pollination. My landlady lost all three of her hives last year, but she's recovered one because a swarm landed in her garden and she was able to transplant them to a hive.

 

[Said1]

Tons of them.

 

[DaSleeper]

At one festival this summer there was an abundance of ground nesting bees and while I never got stung, other people did...and those bees are not supposed to sting?

 

[karrie]

We had tons of pollinators in the yard this year. Hornets, wasps, bumbles, honeys, and even flies, crawling all over everything. The linden tree outside my kitchen window was a constant buzz for its entire flowering cycle. The herbs and onions and tomatoes have all been thick with insects. It's a nice change from last year when all we had was hornets.

 

[#juan]

We had tons of pollinators in the yard this year. Hornets, wasps, bumbles, honeys, and even flies, crawling all over everything. The linden tree outside my kitchen window was a constant buzz for its entire flowering cycle. The herbs and onions and tomatoes have all been thick with insects. It's a nice change from last year when all we had was hornets.

My wife has quite large flower beds and we see a fair number of pollinators. Most are bumblebees. Honeybees would
not make up even ten percent but I think there are more this year than last.

 

[karrie]

My wife has quite large flower beds and we see a fair number of pollinators. Most are bumblebees. Honeybees would
not make up even ten percent but I think there are more this year than last.

Hubby noticed lots of honeys. He can tell the difference when they're flying though, my eye is not that fine.

 

[taxslave]

Black Widow spiders seem to be thriving very nicely here, especially in our workshop - I swear I saw one toddling back to her lair carrying a full grown mouse! Ack!!)

I think that may have been my X.
Never paid much attention to just what was buzzing around our place other than there is lots of activity.
Does it matter what is doing the pollenating so long as it is getting done?

 

[Praxius]

Black Widow spiders seem to be thriving very nicely here, especially in our workshop - I swear I saw one toddling back to her lair carrying a full grown mouse! Ack!!)

I think that may have been my X.
Never paid much attention to just what was buzzing around our place other than there is lots of activity.
Does it matter what is doing the pollenating so long as it is getting done?

Agreed... there's plenty of bugs and animals that help the pollination process, yet everybody is all up in a tussle about the bees because they're losing out on money, so they freak out and start claiming that the world is ending.

If the world relied on just one species to keep everything going, we would have been screwed long ago.

 

[CDNBear]

Does it matter what is doing the pollenating so long as it is getting done?

Ya! Who am I supposed to steal wild hunny from?

 

[lone wolf]

Leave my hummingbird feeders alone!

 

[CDNBear]

Ewww, I hate that stale, coloured sweet water stuff.

I like the real deal, even if I do get the odd larva, lol.

 

[Tonington]

Does it matter what is doing the pollenating so long as it is getting done?

The issue is that pollinators aren't all attracted to the same thing. Some are attracted to colour of the flower, others to the smell. Losing one species of pollinator might not mean much for agriculture and plant life as a whole, but it could be devastating for specific crops and plants.