Are Honey Bees Threatened?

This article has one or two interesting comments mixed in with some good and bad news.

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/04/17/honeybee-population-i...

First, it reminds us that honeybees are not native to the Americas. They originate in Asia and were spread worldwide by European and other colonists. If the bees have problems here, its up to us to fix the problems. The 'niche' bees occupy here is not a natural one and other, local bees might well out compete honey bees if humans did not intervene.

As we have discussed before, it looks like renting large numbers of bees out to the almond growers and other agribusiness has complications for those specific bees. The comment about honey bee diet is particularly interesting--it makes sense that a diet of nothing but almond pollen for several weeks is not ideal.

Fortunately, our gardens full of wild flowers and lots of varied pollen sources appear to be healthy for our local honey bees as well as other pollinators.

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