UK: Beekeepers 'run out of equipment' as swarms rise - BBC News

[rcjordan]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-65746081

Maybe No Mow May helped?  Anyway, this is better than the usual news about bee populations.

[ergophobe]

We only have honeybees now because of beekeepers. There are no wild honeybees in this country because honeybees are affected by a parasitic mite which feeds on their blood - it's an invasive species.

Wow. I had no idea. Meanwhile, in the US, honeybees do exist in the wild and they are, while not "invasive" (a value-laden term that was not used in biology until the 1950s and not precisely defined until the 1990s), definitely introduced and not native.

[rcjordan]

In North Carolina, there are over. 500 species of native bees. In the US, there are more than 4,000 native bee species. -NC Wildlife Dept.

N.C. Effort to Help Pollinators Shows Successes, Limitations | NC State News

https://news.ncsu.edu/2023/02/n-c-effort-to-help-pollinators-shows-successes-limitations/

[ergophobe]

Those 4000 native species tend to pollinate within a specific niche, which is wonderful, unless you are, say, an almond or orange or apple farmer.

The advantages of introduced/naturalized honeybees (bees of genus Apis, primarily Apis mellifera)  are:

1. They co-evolved with the Old World crops that make up most of our ag.
2. They are in any case promiscuous pollinators, so they will even pollinate ag species they have never seen before.

The disadvantage, of course, can be displacement of native bee species that preferentially pollinate native plants with cascading effects on native plant populations. Between European bees and European earthworms, the environment in North America has been radically changed since they were introduced in about the seventeenth century (sixteenth in South America).

[rcjordan]

>no mow May

Due my health, we had No Mow April this year and the bees, wasps, hummingbirds, & rabbits showed up in good numbers.  My mowing experiments last year showed observable increases in pollinators (and rabbits) just by going to a 2-week mowing schedule.  On a 3-week schedule, their numbers seemed to double again.

This year, I bought some white clover seeds to broadcast in a side yard that we rarely use, but the transplant recovery nixed that.  Maybe next year.  We hired a landscaper to mow this year but I did put him on a 2-week schedule.

[rcjordan]

US: Honeybee health blooming at federal facilities across the country - ABC News

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/buzzworthy-honeybee-health-blooming-federal-facilities-country-99806930

[Rupert]

In other UK news down our Lane, there was a swarm on the lawn (no idea of the type of bee) a couple of weeks ago, and my neighbours bees swarmed yesterday.  He had a hive ready for them and hopefully they will settle.

I have just had my chimney replaced, because masonry bees had destroyed it.  You could see right through it, and the builder said it was like a block of flats for them as it was taken down. We then spotted them all over the rest of the house, digging into soft mortar.

[rcjordan]

>mortar

Bee bricks become planning requirement for new buildings in Brighton

https://www.dezeen.com/2022/01/24/bee-bricks-planning-requirement-brighton/

====

Brighton bee bricks initiative may do more harm than good, say scientists | Bees | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists

[rcjordan]

What began as a grassroots effort in the North Carolina mountains a decade ago to save honeybees has become a nationwide initiative to protect pollinators.

https://coastalreview.org/2023/06/nc-founded-program-promotes-pollinator-protections/