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

By J. Cane, V. Tepedino. 2017

152 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2e009772e53addb2a3f4bbab561b201b724b4d08

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. Colin Fontaine
2. Élisa Thébault
3. Mickaël Henry
4. I. Dajoz
5. M. Forister
6. Orianne Rollin
7. A. Sauve
8. Carsten F. Dormann

In Genetics

1. Colin Fontaine
2. I. Dajoz
3. M. Forister
4. Élisa Thébault
5. Orianne Rollin

In Insect Science

1. Colin Fontaine
2. Mickaël Henry
3. I. Dajoz
4. M. Forister
5. Orianne Rollin

Citations in the corpus

• Massively Introduced Managed Species and Their Consequences for Plant–Pollinator Interactions (2017, background): “Thus, Cane and Tepedino (2016) recently estimated that, during 3 months, a strong honeybee colony gathers as much pollen as could pro- duce 100,000 progeny of M. rotundata.”
• Interest exceeds understanding in public support of bee conservation (2017, background): “…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 2001; Thomson 2004; Cane and Tepedino 2016).”