How much agriculture was going on here in 1640 iirc? What was here was easily supported by native bee's and other pollinators, as you know, native bees don't hive up in the numbers like the EHB does..
Wonder why the almond orchards and many of the other large crop orchards in the US pay the big bucks to have commercial beeks bring in hives by the semi loads, East coast, West Coast, central plains, it doesn't matter, they spend a lot because the EHB is efficient at its job in numbers. Actually the bumble bee is a better pollinator (per bug), but they too are thinning out.

The colonist probably brought the bees for the confection (honey), not to pollinate large scale farming

flies, wasps, bumblebees, humans, wolfs. any thing that pollen can stick too and be dropped. Just abut all insects will pollinate in some way. But never in my garden.

lol - moved right into the wall of my house !

Is that why your screen name is hornet?

I will say, the short time I was down at "therancher"'s place I've never seen more bees in my life.

I keep quite a few hives of bees and think that European bees have had a rough time and there has been a drastic decline in their numbers in many parts of the country. Mostly due to the varroa mite.
I do agree with rancher that in Texas bee numbers are very strong. Also in Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arizona.
I think the reason for this popoulation explosion is due to the African Hybridized bees.
There are hordes of them coming up from South America and Mexico. They are stronger and defend their hives vicisiosly. It is my belief that this bee will ultimately save the bee population.
Yes they are mean as snakes but they can be tamed by requeening the hive. I have done so on many occasions.
There are bees everywhere in Texas.

Every southern state from Florida to Casli, has AHB's, AHB's are notorious swarm machines, so they send out new bee's often, they also tend to have smaller hives in the wild.. Re queening can sure calm a hive down over time, then you are back to European genetics. Maybe when EHB mate with wild stock with a % of AHB, they can make a difference, but then they have a possibility of going "hot" again.

Varroa Destructor and associated pathogens, Hive beetle and associated pathogens, both fairly recent "imports" hurting bees nearly world wide, then ad European and american foulbrood, tracheal mites, nosema...Ladies have a tough "row to how".

BTW, read an article the other day where they estimate 805 of the worlds agriculture pollination is carried out by..,.,you guessed it, European honey bee.

I don't doubt what y'all are saying about AHB's. But the bees that were in my feeders, corn sacks, chicken feed by the tens of thousands this winter were sure docile. All the bags I grabbed and feeders I dumped corn into with hundreds of bees swarming around me each time, I never got stung.

The wife was the only one stung this year. And that's because she accidently mashed one that had lit on her.

I mentioned earlier I was the hired help for my father's hobby. It was hot/heavy work come harvest time, but I'll begrudgingly admit there were some interesting things I learned. The whole re-queening thing, we had docile hives (didn't really need a suit or hat) and rambuctious hives (better not wear dark clothes to visit these boys). Bees will kick poor workers out of the hive (we should learn from that), doing splits to grow our hive count and so on. It's been a while, but we sold all that we harvested to the govt. (USDA I believe). I think our best year was (5) 55 gallon drums. A 55 gallon drum of honey is one heavy SOB. Given rain in S. La. we'd have to take it somewhere to reduce the moisture content via boiling via vacuum. Still don't understand how that porcess worked...

Charlie

Rancher
All of the AHB I have dealt with are no different than any other honey be unless they are actually defending their hive. I have harvested several swarms(not hives) and dont treat then any different than others, mainly because they are just as harmless in a swarm as any other bee. They are also just as docile when gathering and foraging.
Just dont mess with their hive.

55 galloons is about 550 to 600 lbs. Yes heavy.
I will make about half of that this year and dont want any more!

Do you have an apiary? I'm looking for a bee keeper to come take hives that don't require killing. I'm in Abilene.

Dragonuv
I do have an apiary but I am not taking any bees this year or retrieving hives any longer.
What started as a hobby has turned into a second job so I am going to stay with the hives I have now.
Harvesting hives is a lot of work. Sorry

I understand, I know they take a lot of attention and effort. If you sell honey, message me your info, we go through honey like crazy in my house, about a Mason jar per month. I love spun honey, but no local honey makers that I've found sell it. We currently get our honey from Jackson Brothers Feed.

If you can get some whipped honey in the consistency you like, then you can make more. Get some good "real" local pure honey, remove a little of the clear honey from that jar and replace with some of the whipped you have. Place in cool 50ish degree area for a week to 10 days. Don't stir it in, just add the whipped in to replaced what you removed and the clear should replicate the crystals from the whipped.

PM sent

I am probably going to sell some this year. For the last four years we have been giving it to friends and family but have enough hives now that I will make more than we care to giveaway.
I'll let you know. It is good mesquite honey.

Pollen...... the part that's fascinating is the flowers of certain genus of orchid. One genus of CA/SA can detect the presence of a flying insect, moce the flower into what it calculates to be an optimal firing solution, then shoots the pollinia out of the flower at the insect, a process that is more often than not successful. The pollinia have a stalk like structure with a circular pad at the end that's coated with a unique adhesive that will stick to any part of the insect that it comes into contact with.

I watched a slowd high speed video of the process and it was an epiphany that a flower can etect a flying insect, aim the flower, then shoot at hit it with a high degree of success. Despite the fact it's optically blind.

I have two good eyes and I still occasionally struggle to hit what I'm firing at.

I have 8 peach trees that are mature and were covered in blooms. Saw very few bees when they flowered. Only have a few peaches when I should have hundreds. This is the.worst I've ever seen.

You live in or near the metromess. And you want to weigh in on the population of bees?

You should get out more. Expand your horizons past where no self respecting organism would prefer to bee.