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Last summer we had in June so much bumble bees, that ghey ate food from bees.
I moved 4 bee hives to the 20 hectare wood cutting area. There was a good amount of raspberry and fireweed. When I looked in the morning, how bees are working, there were 5 times more bumbles than honey bees.
Next case on same district. I made a deal with a farmer. There was 30 hectare nice rape blooming.
I brought 3 hives to the field. I opened the hive and went to look, how much flowers had nectar.
And what I saw! There was big mama bumbles on the field, at least 5 buggs / square metre. We can calculate 30 x 10000 m2 x 5 = 1.5 million bumbles on one field. We can compare to beehives. A big hive has 70 000 bees. Guite many beehives allready on the pasture and all foragers. On previous summer I had same situation on 20 ha rape field.
I lifted at once hives back to carry.
But there are areas here too, that not a single bee or bumble bee in rape field.
And the reason is that there are square kilometres cultivated fields. Area does not have any food on the field, and they do not make nest into that "desert". Beekeepers do not bring the hives into such places, because rape blooms only 2 weeks in a summer, and they are windy places.
Bees are disappearing, so they say, but fact is that, that pollinating insects cannot live on area, where they get food only 2 weeks during summer.
. And then, they cannot waste their energy by flying couple of kilometres to nearest flower.
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You may do "flower fields for pollinators" , but fields do not give food to insects 6 months. Field blooms only couple of weeks...
Lets look further
30 hectares . 5 foraging bees / m2.
10 hives which have 70.000 bees, of which half are foragers.
35.000 foragers per hive.
Hives 4-5 langstroth boxes.
10 hives 350.000 bees
1.5 million foragers on 30 hectare means at least 40 hives.
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