[NatureNS] Garden bees

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Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 11:35:51 -0300
From: David McCorquodale <dbmcc09@gmail.com>
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
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Peter:
There are about 200 species of bees in Nova Scotia.  Cory Sheffield
has done the most work on the inventory of bees in Nova Scotia.  Kenna
MacKenzie and Steve Javorek have also documented many of the
pollinators, including bees, in blueberry fields.

Honey bee, one species, and all in Nova Scotia are here because of
beekeepers.  This species is not native to North America, all those in
North America are either in managed hives (the overwhelming majority)
or escapes from those hives.  Long-term feral hives are very rare in
Nova Scotia.  Even those that get established from a swarm in the
early summer, have a tough time making it through the winter.  There
is an irony here because storing honey is really a colony’s way of
storing food for a long, cold winter.

There are about 15 species of bumble bees in Nova Scotia. This leaves
the vast majority of species of bees in Nova Scotia as bees that most
people never notice.  They are all smaller than bumble bees and >95%
of them are smaller than honey bees.  They are inconspicuous unless
you are looking for them.  Two genera that are common in gardens (the
exposed soil provides them with good nesting sites) are _Andrena_ and
_Colletes_.   Both are relatively furry (pollen sticks to the furry
hairs).  At this time of year the brilliant metallic green
_Augochlorella_ can be common as well.

Hope this helps.  I recommend browsing bugguide.net to see what some
of them look like.

DBMcC

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 10:57 AM, Peter Payzant <pce@accesswave.ca> wrote:
> So I take it that if we can differentiate hover flies from bees, anything we
> see that looks like a honeybee probably is a honeybee, and moreover is
> probably "tame", that is from a hive somewhere. Is that a reasonable
> statement?
>
> Peter Payzant
> Waverley, NS
>
>
>
> On 2012-05-14 10:25 AM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:
>
> On 5/14/2012 4:24 AM, Rick Whitman wrote:
>
>  The vast majority of honey bees seen in NS are "tame". This is
> not so further south.
>
> I have seen 2 "bee trees" in my life with feral honey bees. One was in
> Annapolis Royal&  one was in the wilds of Hants Co. at least 5 km from
> the nearest remote habitation.
>
>

>

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