You’re right Alan. My honey bees are more monoculture oriented than my native bees. They’re more interested in large bloomings where they can supply the hive of its needs in bulk whereas I imagine that solitary bees would be more threatened by monoculture because of their solitary habit. I have no experience with solitary bees but I can see your point. Declining habitat is a growing issue for many species. I should build a lodge for the solitaries.
Fortunately I live in a subtropical city where people are very garden conscious, where large tracts of native forest habitats are retained and street plantings are council policy.
Well, you may be right as well, but I think you missed my point somewhat. Some experts studying the decline of honeybees have come to the conclusion that their diets are too limited when they are moved from one commercial mono-culture farm to another.
Yes, I understand that can be a problem with migratory beekeeping as used in the pollination of large scale monoculture crops but I think it is only a part of a very complex problem. Pesticide use being another. Frankly I don’t know how the issue can be solved with there being so many competing interests.
Perhaps you solve the problem by treating bees the way we do the land. You farm it for a few years and then you let it recover by not farming it for a year or so. So with Bees perhaps you give them a break every other year so that aren’t doing commercial farms every year.