Feral bees are making a comeback here in a big way, but they have no place left to go. The fence rows, ditches, cricks and even the river banks are being dozed in to make room to plant MORE corn.
In so doing, a field may gain a dozen or more acres in size. With corn prices high, and yields beginning to AVERAGE 200 bushel per acre.. that dozen or more acres is worth as many thousand dollars as there are acres. Bees are moving into houses, barns, sheds, equipment, Silos, even dog houses and gas grills. From which they are usually cut out or outright killed.
All I want is to provide a space that they will not be bothered. Some folks build bird houses. Some make Bat houses. Some folks build nesting sites for ducks and geese. Some try to save the little endangered frog from the crews trying to build new bridges. I will build bee domiciles, and insure that in my lifetime they are not disturbed.
Down in the bottom, three, four, even six old hollow logs isn't going to affect my production any more than the feral hives that used to flourish in the area did. The closest permanent feral hive I know of is about three miles away. I know where there are several more between five and ten miles. Fifteen years ago there were about twenty locations I knew of. I found them running tree lines while coon hunting. Those places are now fields. Every single one of them. Places I knew of as a kid are also long gone. Ponds I fished in were filled in. Wash outs I used to play in are filled in and tiled. Hundreds of farms.. farms that raised their families on 40 to 80 acres of ground, with out buildings, and timber filled draws and stream beds lined by trees. All gone and turned to fields to raise corn by farmers that now farm thousands of acres instead of 40 or 80 acres. I don't blame the farmers completely. Farming is part of my blood, and I am as much to blame.
So as I see it, there will be feral colonies, taking up residence in houses, barns, sheds and MANY other places where they are a nuisance. Offering them a better place, and then attempting to capture the swarms they send out would only be of service, rather than an annoyance or danger. Without my miniscule effort, they will find somewhere else to go, they will still send out swarms, which will also find someplace else to go.
There WILL be feral colonies no matter what we do.
So in following the line of thinking that they will spread disease, should we go out and do our best to get rid of those feral colonies in the barns, houses, sheds and the few remaining trees they have, because they might have diseases?
In my mind, Replacing locations that were lost because of greed should be a priority, rather than something to argue against. Giving them a place to inhabit they will not be a nuisance a boon, rather than a bust.
Interested in other opinions as well!!
LOL Blue..
I try not to have it out with "the man" It means I screwed up, and I hate doing that.
That is an AWESOME picture/story SlowModem!! I love it!
