The tip of the iceberg ?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just had a message from a neighbouring bee farmer, she has an apiary on a smallholding near to a few of mine (apiaries not smallholdings ) or should I say had - the occupants have just joined buglife or some such crowd and have been told by them that honeybees are bad - so she's been told to take her hives away.
Could we be seing more of this - especially in an area like mine with loads of outcomers 'downsizing' for the good life in one of the many comparitively cheap smallholdings now on the market?

 

[B+.]

Just had a message from a neighbouring bee farmer, she has an apiary on a smallholding near to a few of mine (apiaries not smallholdings ) or should I say had - the occupants have just joined buglife or some such crowd and have been told by them that honeybees are bad - so she's been told to take her hives away.
Could we be seing more of this - especially in an area like mine with loads of outcomers 'downsizing' for the good life in one of the many comparitively cheap smallholdings now on the market?

I never heard such a thing.
I have 32 colonies in my nearest apiary. It was surrounded by beans last year. The farmer has planted 15m borders of wildflowers around all the fields this year (it does make getting into the field with a vehicle awkward but I'll manage).

 

[Madge]

Yes, I have heard that - but I think the fear is unjustified here in the UK.

I've read Dave Goulson's 'A Sting in the Tale' and there he describes the interesting case where bumble bees have been illegally smuggled into Tasmania to help with tomato pollination. In that case it's the bumble bees that are a threat to the local bee population and, as a consquence, also vegetation. He is monitoring it.

But honey bees a threat here, where they've been for millennia (well, a very long time) ... I don't think so, but I think Dave Goulson might disagree with me.

 

[thedozzer]

there has been a few news reports over the last few years by a few sources that say that bees threaten other pollinating insects,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30831257

https://www.buglife.org.uk/sites/default/files/Pollinator manifesto with covers_1.pdf = page 8

and there was another i had read recently that was suggesting removing all honey bee hives from city's to allow natural pollinators to benefit from all the flora provided in gardens! =
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science...-harming-wild-bees-says-cambridge-university/

original Cambridge report = https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/think-of-honeybees-as-livestock-not-wildlife-argue-experts

so its not a new idea!

 

[Finman]

.
That is not so bad as cows. They destroy our globe with methane.
.

 

[Amari]

Yes, I have heard that - but I think the fear is unjustified here in the UK.

I've read Dave Goulson's 'A Sting in the Tale' and there he describes the interesting case where bumble bees have been illegally smuggled into Tasmania to help with tomato pollination. In that case it's the bumble bees that are a threat to the local bee population and, as a consquence, also vegetation. He is monitoring it.

But honey bees a threat here, where they've been for millennia (well, a very long time) ... I don't think so, but I think Dave Goulson might disagree with me.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was the Romans that brought honeybees here?

 

[Beefriendly]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was the Romans that brought honeybees here?

Nope.....they got here all by themselves.

 

[For want of a better word]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was the Romans that brought honeybees here?

The Roman bees died out as they were not fit for our climate.... pretty much the same as for the Romans too!

#They did leave us bloody nettles apparently!

Nadelik Lowen

 

[philipm]

Thing is if people didn't keep destroying the local flowers and fauna there would be plenty for all insects.Around here farmers cut the hedges so hard I'm surprised they recover.Every thing is sprayed with weed killer so that things look neat and tidy gone are the days when hay meadows had loads of different flowers now its just a mono culture of grass.House holders are not much better they don't want any weeds in their gardens and spray everything.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

there has been a few news reports over the last few years by a few sources that say that bees threaten other pollinating insects,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30831257

https://www.buglife.org.uk/sites/default/files/Pollinator manifesto with covers_1.pdf = page 8

and there was another i had read recently that was suggesting removing all honey bee hives from city's to allow natural pollinators to benefit from all the flora provided in gardens! =
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science...-harming-wild-bees-says-cambridge-university/

original Cambridge report = https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/think-of-honeybees-as-livestock-not-wildlife-argue-experts

so its not a new idea!

As you see - buglife rears its ugly head again - no real data to prove their claim (No UK data anyway), the only studies of note have been american - big difference in the monoculture priairie type farming they practice when any pollinator that is not a honeybee quickly meets i'ts end - and not by accident.

 

[Fritillary]

Absolutely, philipm - surely the smallholders can see that the problem to be addressed is one is to due with loss of forage rather than an excess of foragers - ?

Almost every time someone 'improves' their property in any way, habitat is destroyed, as far as I can see. As soon as people are concerned with maintaining or improving the value of what they own, any consideration of the environment just goes out the window.

 

[madasafish]

If buglife were really serious about preserving pollinators, they would campaign for decking to be banned in gardens, and for converting from gardens to parking spaces to be rationed.
They would also campaign to stop new housing developments, new or additional airstrips being built and to prevent the use of lawnmowers as grass is not pollinator friendly.

 

[Finman]

Thing is if people didn't keep destroying the local flowers and fauna there would be plenty .....

I think that sheeps eate everything from your fields.

 

[For want of a better word]

It is what you get when the Environment minister is a mere accountant....

COSTING THE ENVIRONMENT!!

 

[Angularity]

If buglife were really serious about preserving pollinators, they would campaign for decking to be banned in gardens, and for converting from gardens to parking spaces to be rationed.
They would also campaign to stop new housing developments, new or additional airstrips being built and to prevent the use of lawnmowers as grass is not pollinator friendly.

But then they'd have to campaign to stop all immigration to preserve habitats in the South, or perhaps to re-wild parts of the post-industrial North. Then they could campaign against golf courses and the equine industry.

 

[Fritillary]

But then they'd have to campaign to stop all immigration to preserve habitats in the South, or perhaps to re-wild parts of the post-industrial North. Then they could campaign against golf courses and the equine industry.

Simplify things: campaign to stop people! Too many of them compared with the forage??

 

[Poly Hive]

I would suggest a quiet chat on these lines.


Where the media is concerned the reality and what they say are like train lines.

That is the reality and lots just don't realise it as they have no experience of it.

People like to think they "know". They don't like being fed propaganda.

PH

 

[bontbee]

….Almost every time someone 'improves' their property in any way, habitat is destroyed, as far as I can see. As soon as people are concerned with maintaining or improving the value of what they own, any consideration of the environment just goes out the window.

Couldn't agree more - at all! It's so depressingly predictable.

... prevent the use of lawnmowers as grass is not pollinator friendly.

Ah, people are ahead of you maaf, have you noticed how many lawns no longer need a lawnmower?

Simplify things: campaign to stop people! Too many of them compared with the forage??

Ahh, the most salient point of all. When will people wake up and realise that we can't just keep on breeding...

Only yesterday I saw a headline that some star or other had just produced his tenth kid but, then, being a star, he must have special genes.

Ah, I know, another great big can of worms - if you can find any to put in it, that is.

 

[TooBee...]

The Roman bees died out as they were not fit for our climate.... pretty much the same as for the Romans too!

#They did leave us bloody nettles apparently!

Nadelik Lowen

I'm guessing your banter is tongue in cheek, but do any of you ( Cheers , Beefriendly , Amari , etc.) have references for the claims that the 1. Romans brought bees here, 2. they came on their own wings (which I think is assumed...) and that 3. the Roman bees all died?

Sorry to split hairs, like I said I'm guessing it's just a bit of banter...

 

[domino]

The suggestion that managed hives are kept out of areas where native pollinators are struggling doesn't seem that controversial to me.