Does America suddenly have a record number of bees?

[thefourthchime]

https://archive.is/lHVwP

[jszymborski]

I might have missed it, but this article seems to be making the common mistake of conflating native bee species with cultivated bees. I'd be interested in knowing how native bee species are doing, especially since my understanding is that cultivated bees often compete with native bee species.

[poulsbohemian]

All the research I’m hearing around North America would indicate the fear about competition is overblown. Honey bees, not being native, don’t necessarily go after the same pollen sources as native bees. Some good research out of Alberta showed that native bees were for example going after native plants whereas the honey bees were shown to fly farther distances to find things like canola. In my own yard (hobby guy, not commercial) I have at least three types of native bees and I watch them cohabitate with my honey bees very similar to what the research in Canada demonstrated.

[bradley13]

This is important. Swamp the land with a monoculture of disease-prone bees. Of course this is going to have an impact on wild species. Probably massive, but no one seems to care. Rally strange.

[munificent]

The last five paragraphs are about this.

[aiauthoritydev2]

Honeybees are not native to USA only bumblebees are.

[ricardobeat]

You missed it. The latter half of the article is about the difference between captive honeybees and wild ones, and also how the population has only increased due to aggressive expansion to counter colonies dying from disease and yellowjackets.

> Grames said the consensus holds that pollinators, like all insects, are in decline — losing probably 1 to 2 percent a year.

[Dig1t]

>the honeybee has been the fastest-growing livestock segment in the country! And that doesn’t count feral honeybees, which may outnumber their captive cousins several times over.

[WillAdams]

When I was a kid, it was pretty normal to get stung by a bee when out playing/picking dandelions/making clover chains, and just a walk around one's neighborhood would have more bees covering various flowers than one could easily count.

A local school system has an annual project where school children gather insects --- bees dropped precipitously in number two decades ago, and children have since been cautioned not to capture any sort of stinging/biting insect (mostly out of liability concerns), but it seems to only apply to wasps and yellowjackets.

There's an article on this sort of thing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations

[com2kid]

> When I was a kid, it was pretty normal to get stung by a bee when out playing/picking dandelions/making clover chains, and just a walk around one's neighborhood would have more bees covering various flowers than one could easily count.

I bought an online pollinator friendly garden kit. $150 later (and a few dead plants that didn't make it through shipping) I now have an absurd number of bumble bees around.

Bumble bees are incredibly gentle, you can walk through entire fields of them and they will just ignore you. I was actually pretty worried about planting a pollinator garden while having a toddler around, but it has gone surprisingly well (meaning he hasn't gotten stung).

[hn_throwaway_99]

The real reason is buried pretty far down in the article:

> In 2012, the Herbert Hypothetical gave rise to a new law: Your plot of five to 20 acres now qualifies for agriculture tax breaks if you keep bees on it for five years.

> Over the next few years, all 254 Texas counties adopted bee rules requiring, for example, six hives on five acres plus another hive for every 2.5 acres beyond that to qualify for the tax break. Herbert keeps a spreadsheet of the regulations and drives across the state to educate bee-curious landowners.

Economics, who knew?

[ThrowawayR2]

The interesting bit is more that there's still an ongoing severe problem with bee colonies dying that hasn't been solved despite the apparent increase in overall numbers:

"Sadly, however, this does not mean we’ve defeated colony collapse. One major citizen-science project found that beekeepers lost almost half of their colonies in the year ending in April 2023, the second-highest loss rate on record.

For now, we’re making up for it with aggressive management. The Texans told us that they were splitting their hives more often, replacing queens as often as every year and churning out bee colonies faster than the mites, fungi and diseases can take them down."

[jackfoxy]

That which you incentivize you get more of. That which you tax you get less of.

Or, as Charlie Munger famously remarked, Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.

[ortusdux]

Florida has similar tax breaks for cattle grazing, and Washington has them for managed forests.

[pfdietz]

Also, even further down, the large increase in almond cultivation in California.

[whimsicalism]

I would be curious to see if these bee hives in Texas are mostly actually extant or whether people are just claiming bee hives for the tax benefit.

[adolph]

In 1987 the nation lost 7 million children for similar reasons.

In 1986, when taxpayers had only to provide the names for children they were claiming as exemptions, 77 million dependents were listed. But then the law changed, and in returns filed for 1987 only 70 million exemptions were identified.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-11-me-33-sto...

[Salgat]

Same here. A rich family sold a lot of land where our homes are now, but kept a little private pond with a house in the back. The only folks I ever see back there are either landscapers cutting the grass or if the owners come out for a big party; no one lives there. Curious if their agriculture exemption for bees is actually legitimate.

[Solvency]

our backyard in California is full of native plants, lavender, fennel, and tons of other pollinator friendly plants.

There are quite literally hundreds of bees basically working in our backyard every single day, 365 days a year. And it takes almost no effort other than some basic gardening. It's outrageously simple to support bees. It's comically absurd how difficult the world wants to make it seem.

[97s]

Exactly this. Thank you. I have a bee friendly yard in suburban neighborhood with HOA. I keep the front streetside nice and neat for the HOA, but the side yard and back yard is full of clover, a plot of wildflowers, blueberries, blackberries, apples, and a lot of flowers for birds and butterflies. The total amount of effort and cost for all this? Maybe a few hundred dollars over a few years and very minimal work. Turns out that the stuff bees like are basically weeds and will establish and come back with basically no effort at all. The hardest part is stopping the stupid bermuda grass from overtaking it.

I cannot wait for my wildflower plot to shoot up. This year I turned over about 10m x 10m of bermuda grass and sewed a southeastern wildflower mix. I left the center of it grass and a path into it. I plan to go lay down and meditate in the wildflower patch while the bees zoom over head.

[enraged_camel]

I mean, yes and no. If you live in a humid climate where pests like roaches can breed easily, then you either have to live with them, or use pesticides. In which case, say goodbye to bees (and other beneficial insects).

[throwawayoaky]

buttloads of honeybees everywhere around here. Hate em. Eating bumble and carpenter foods, boo. Leave my white sage alone. https://bugguide.net/node/view/7698

[giantg2]

Depends on the location. Many times they do not compete for food as the tongues of the bumble and carpenter bees are able to reach nectar sources the honeybees cannot. Also many of the native bees will work the flowers earlier in the day, giving them a headstart on the honeybees.

[JamesSwift]

I'm a fan of the honeybees, except they keep invading my house. Currently addressing a nest in our attic... Thats the 5th incident in 3 years in this house, 3 of which were hives being built in the home...

[malfist]

You like carpenter bees? They're a pain in the ass

[aksss]

There's always a crisis you need to be ultra-worried about, even if you can't do anything to fix it yourself. One day it's too few honeybees, the next it's too many. It goes from being exhausting to being silly, the more cycles you've seen.

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

Works where archive.is is blocked:

https://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?d=3048629111976&w=yisrFjabHB...

[throwup238]

I think the bigger question is: why has squab fallen so much in popularity in 15 years?

[daneel_w]

A record number of honey bees, maybe? But how are all the other equally (or more) important species of wild bees doing?

[arathis]

BEADS!?!?

[whall6]

This better not be an april fools joke

[palata]

I can't access the article (paywall), but I hope it makes the difference between wild bees and cultivated bees.

[subwrmodblocker]

Because agribusiness were making up the “bee crisis” to begin with.

[Freebytes]

This is one of those fairly obvious situations where you can simply go outside and observe a collapse of insect populations. You may be too young to remember not being able to drive without windshield washer fluid due to the large number of insects that would be on your windshield in a single drive from place to place. Consider leaving your basement.