[ExI] Bee Watch

[BillK]

On 17 December 2015 at 18:21, spike wrote:
<snip>
> Perhaps we have bred bees to look around for weak hives to rob rather than
> go out looking for honey.  This would lead to increased vectors for
> parasites and other diseases.  Since the number of sites is limited by
> various factors, such as land availability, roads and so forth.  Proles
> buying honey and paying absurd prices for it encourages beekeepers to pack
> more supers into the available sites, which breeds robbers, which spreads
> disease and weakens hives, which encourages robbers.
>
> Could we be causing the decline of bees by indirectly breeding uncooperative
> or adversarial strains by paying crazy prices for honey?
>

I'm not a beekeeper, but your suggestion sounds unlikely.
(Try running it past some bee experts).

As i understand it, bees rob other hives when nectar is scarce.
Shortage of habitat may be one of the reasons for bee decline. If so,
robbing may be increasing.

The other factor is that bees learn from each other. If a robber hive
is successful and the beekeeper doesn't intervene, the robbing habit
will spread through the whole apiary.

I think if robber bees were increasing the beekeepers would have noticed.


BillK