[Pollinator] for discussion: should honeybees be allowed into conservation/protected areas?

[ariella gotlieb]

Hi Liz and all,

I've been working in the Israeli Rift Valley for the past few years, the
epitome of scarce resources, and can certainly say that the effect of
honeybees on resource depletion rate there is great.
Pollen and nectar in plants that were heavily foraged by honeybees were
depleted much more quickly than ones that weren't.
Considering that honey bees start foraging much earlier in the day than
most of the local wild species, by the time the wild species are up and
about, most of the food is gone.
That has to affect their reproductive rate.
And one of the plant species I checked was not being pollinated by the HB
at all, despite them illegitimately cleaning out much of its pollen and
nectar.
(Sorry, don't have the articles on it yet, they'll be coming later this
year.)

So, no I don't think it's such a great idea to put heaps of hives in
conservation areas if you want to keep your local plants and pollinators
unharmed.
Like Peter and David said, the problem isn't with a few feral hives, it's
when they show up in great numbers in comparison to wild species that they
become a pain.


Cheers,

Ariella



Ariella Gotlieb
PhD candidate
Tel Aviv University
ariellag at post.tau.ac.il
arigotlieb at gmail.com



On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 7:04 PM, Liz Day <lizday44 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Might these results have been different in areas of scarcer resources
> (such as Indianapolis(?)?
> I find it hard to imagine that honeybees do not affect bumblebees in
> places where Bombus forage appears rather scant.
> Liz D.
>
>
>
> >Here, one of the most invasive species, the non-native African honey
> >bee, failed to impact native bee populations in Panama:
> >
> >> To provide replicate samples of local bee populations in a nature
> >preserve, light traps operated continuously on Barro Colorado Island
> >(BCI), Panama, collected bees for 17 years, including 10 years
> >following invasion by African Apis mellifera. Honey bees appeared in
> >light traps as the first swarms colonized the Panama Canal area. Their
> >numbers followed seasonal trends shown in independent studies, thus
> >indicating bee abundance and activity in a large area.
> >
> >> No measurable population-level impact of competition between this
> >invading honey bee and native bees, despite many demonstrations of
> >resource competition at flower patch and colony levels, changed annual
> >abundances of all 15 native bee species. Native bee abundance did not
> >decrease, nor did native bees show substantial reciprocal yearly
> >change with honey bee abundance. Native bee populations did not
> >decline during the 10 years after arrival of honey bees. In fact, the
> >15 species jointly showed a slight increase during the entire 17-year
> period.
> >
> >Do competing honey bees matter? Dynamics and abundance of native bees
> >before and after honey bee invasion. David W. Roubik · Henk Wolda.
> >Popul Ecol (2001) 43:53­62
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