Gauging the Effect of Honey Bee Pollen Collection on Native Bee Communities

Abstract

Experimental demonstration of direct exploitative competition between foraging honey bees and native bees in wildlands has proven elusive, due to problems of experimental design, scale, and context-dependence. We propose a different approach that translates floral resources collected by a honey bee colony into progeny equivalents of an average solitary bee. Such a metric is needed by public land managers confronting migratory beekeeper demands for insecticide-free, convenient, resource-rich habitats for summering. We calculate that, from June-August, a strong colony gathers as much pollen as could produce 100,000 progeny of an average solitary bee. Analogous to the animal unit month (AUM) for livestock, a hive unit month (HUM) is therefore 33,000 native bee progeny. By this calculation, a 40-hive apiary residing on wildlands for 3 months collects the pollen equivalent of four million wild bees. We introduce a rapid assessment metric to gauge stocking of honey bees, and briefly highlight alternative strategies to provide quality pasture for honey bees with minimal impact on native bees.

The evolution of floral sonication, a pollen foraging behavior used by bees (Anthophila)

“…Additionally, our results suggest that strong selection pressures exist for bee taxa to evolve this complex pollen collection behavior. Competition for pollen among bees is often strong and has large effects on bee fitness (Cane and Tepedino ). Floral sonication enables efficient collection of pollen from diverse floral morphologies (see Russell et al.…”

Interest exceeds understanding in public support of bee conservation

“…Without effective outreach and education about native bees, the efforts of those concerned about bee declines may in some cases do more harm than good. For example, well‐meaning individuals, in an effort to “save the bees”, are installing honey bee hives in residential backyards; the unfortunate outcome is competition between the honey bees and native bees in areas where floral resources are scarce (Roubik and Wolda ; Thomson ; Cane and Tepedino ). Moreover, honey bee colonies imported from non‐local sources can spread diseases (Klee et al .…”

Massively Introduced Managed Species and Their Consequences for Plant–Pollinator Interactions

“…Given that a honeybee visits up to 80 flowers per trip (representing 8-20 mg of pollen), we can estimate that 80-200 million of flowers will be visited for pollen by a single colony annually. Thus, Cane and Tepedino (2016) recently estimated that, during 3 months, a strong honeybee colony gathers as much pollen as could produce 100,000 progeny of M. rotundata. Third, honeybee colonies remain active throughout the year (except during cold months), while the vast majority of solitary wild bee species are only active for few weeks or months.…”