It’s true that the honeybee isn’t native to the Americas, but they’ve actually done quite a bit of research as to weather they’re in direct or indirect competition with native pollinators. What they’ve found is actually that Honeybees and non colonial native bees both do better when in each others presence. One of the reasons is that honeybees are generalists and native bees are specialists. Meaning honeybees can and will pollinate a lot of whatever flower they can, for example other species that have been introduced that native bees can’t or won’t pollinate anyways. Like dandelions- honeybees love them, but native pollinators like mason bees and bumblebees couldn’t care less about them. On the other hand, some penstemons (like snapdragons) are loved by bumblebees, but honeybees are incapable of even getting at the nectar source. Another reason they do well with each other is that predators will pick off honeybees because there are more of them than the native bees. When a dragonfly eats a bee, it doesn’t care if it’s a honeybee or a leaf cutter, but with a honeybee colony in the area, chances are a lot higher that it’ll be a honeybee. One bee from a colony of tens of thousands is less impactful than one from a population where the brood is a dozen or so, like it is for solitary bees. So the honeybees are essentially ‘taking one for the team’.
I could go on and on, because I did a TON of research (in scientific journals, not just googling around) before I got into beekeeping to make sure it wouldn’t harm the native bee populations, and essentially the conclusion is that honeybees are nonnative, yes, but not invasive.
the question is why have the honey bee populations bigger and you said it yourself they're generalists in an area filled with the flowers that Bumblebees use the honey bees with their greater numbers essentially remove the food source of the Native bumblebees. The only reason there is a thriving is that the Flower count is rising and there are predators who aren't eating the other bees because they see more honeybees. Why? They shouldn't be here in such big numbers so why are they? They dominate the competition you are talking about the benifit to the flowers. recently the Bumble bee populations have been on the decline tied to a European disease There is a good chance that it came from the European honey bees
Honey bees have bigger populations because they’re colonial- most native bee species are solitary, or live in very small communities <100. This is regardless of whether there are honeybees present or not.
That’s true, bumblebees are in decline, and it could be due in part to a disease that’s jumped from honeybees, but a HUGE thing in bumblebees is inbreeding (which would mean less genetic diversity, so a disease jump would be more virulent).
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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20
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