Comments on: The Buzz on Native Pollinators http://www.xerces.org/2009/05/18/the-buzz-on-native-pollinators/ Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:14:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Peter Hubbell http://www.xerces.org/2009/05/18/the-buzz-on-native-pollinators/#comment-635 Peter Hubbell Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:30:15 +0000 http://www.xerces.org/?p=6393#comment-635 Dear Cecelia Jokerst: The honeybee is not a new world native. So what I can tell you frommy beekeeper friend in oracle,Az. is that his free ranging bees seem to be doing well or as well as can be expected in our nearly 10 year drought in the SW. His bees feed on numerous species of flowers, though they will feed most heavily on what is blooming in abundance. Transported which are moved in to polinate a single crop seem to be having the worst problems. They also since this happens in heavy agricultural areas have the highest loads of insecticide and fungicide residues. I think this indicates a multi stress problem. Researchers tend to hate such multi casual problems. In part because they are very hard to tease apart. They also tend not to have a "Eureka moment"---" I have found IT". Dear Cecelia Jokerst:
The honeybee is not a new world native. So what I can tell you frommy beekeeper friend in oracle,Az. is that his free ranging bees seem to be doing well or as well as can be expected in our nearly 10 year drought in the SW. His bees feed on numerous species of flowers, though they will feed most heavily on what is blooming in abundance. Transported which are moved in to polinate a single crop seem to be having the worst problems. They also since this happens in heavy agricultural areas have the highest loads of insecticide and fungicide residues.
I think this indicates a multi stress problem. Researchers tend to hate such multi casual problems. In part because they are very hard to tease apart. They also tend not to have a “Eureka moment”—” I have found IT”.

]]> By: Cecelia Jokerst http://www.xerces.org/2009/05/18/the-buzz-on-native-pollinators/#comment-408 Cecelia Jokerst Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:26:24 +0000 http://www.xerces.org/?p=6393#comment-408 To whom it may concern, I have read some but impossibly not all articles concerning the decline of native pollinators and CCD of the Honey Bee. What occurred to me has probably already been research but I've never seen any references to what occurred to me. Is CCD occurring in the native regions of the honey bee? If not, might CCD be from the honey bee species not receiving nectar/pollen from the plants it evolved with? Maybe there are particular nutrients in the plants that the honeybee evolved with that it is not getting in its non-native habitat? Maybe there are other environmental factors that are absent in the the non-native habitat. To whom it may concern,

I have read some but impossibly not all articles concerning the decline of native pollinators and CCD of the Honey Bee. What occurred to me has probably already been research but I’ve never seen any references to what occurred to me. Is CCD occurring in the native regions of the honey bee? If not, might CCD be from the honey bee species not receiving nectar/pollen from the plants it evolved with? Maybe there are particular nutrients in the plants that the honeybee evolved with that it is not getting in its non-native habitat? Maybe there are other environmental factors that are absent in the the non-native habitat.

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