From what i'm seeing the past few years, the bumble bees do all the pollinating around here.

We have quite a few bumblers, luckily, but in past years on a warm sunny day I would always like to stand beneath the blooming apple trees, just to listen to the buzzing! This year, I can hear almost no buzzing. Depressing. I want my buzz!

I would have said yes but this year I am seeing at least one bee in my garden each day now. Nothing like when I was growing up in NorCal seeing litterally hundreds every day but enough pollinate everything.

I hope.

For the most part I've seen a few bumblers, but mostly some little black wasps. Not sure what they are, but they seem pretty friendly.

d

I keep mason bees but mostly I see little bumble bees only on my apple trees and blueberries.

They all seem to like the azalea better than my fruits. Last year I saw honeybees at mid-summer.

I purchased a few tubes of mason bees a few weeks ago, and they seem to have emerged. It was a bit of an initial investment, but hopefully, they're working on creating next years generation as i type these words.

You might consider getting some tubes and a block. Can't hurt, right? :)

PS: I agree, i've seen far fewer bees this Spring. But the weather's been super wonky, so maybe they're just getting off to a sluggish start.

Thanks, estreya, though I think it's too late for any intervention -- my trees will be done blooming in a few more days. I'm hoping that the bumblers, the few honey bees, the other pollinating insects, and the birds will get the job done. But I've always loved seeing a lot of bees, and I find it disconcerting.

BTW, here in NY state our weather has been pretty normal.

I've seen plenty of bees near my apple tree, but they completely ignored it in preference for my nieghbors wisteria. They didn't seem interesting in anything in my yard as long as those flowers were out. I actualyl hand pollinated my 4 in 1 apple with a paintbrush out of frustration.

Here in suburban Maryland we had lots of honeybees on our nectarine, one of the earliest bloomers; only the occasional honeybee on the apples; and virtually none on the pears. But I had purchased hornfaced bees -- a kind of orchard bee -- which are very effective fruit tree pollinators, and they did a good job on my two apple trees. I had hoped for them to reproduce, but I fear that I lost them and will have to look more carefully into how to use them. They prefer fruit trees and forage very close to the tubes they pupate in, unlike honeybees, which may forage miles from their hives.

When a nectar flow is on, honeybees will tend to focus on just one kind of nectar, even if other kinds are available. This is presumably why they were not on your apples.

You think? I hope so. I can't hand-pollinate since the trees are standard, and if I got up on a ladder fifteen feet in the air with a paintbrush my husband would probably have me committed... Though we both do love those apples!

Last year my poor loquats had a lousy crop, there were no bees to be seen around here anywhere when the blossoms were out.
The following fall when I went out with a tiny paintbrush to do the job myself I noticed some very small (non-commercial) 5-band bees working like crazy & now my loquats need to have their branches tied & propped up.
I sure hope the locals go easy on the bug killer chemicals around here.

My two cents worth. I have a thought on the loss of honeybees. The north and south magnetic poles are reversing. This may have an affect on their navigation.

last year the bumbles did the work in my neck of the woods.

all i've seen so far this year is wasps and yellow jackets and they haven't ramped up to their normal plague numbers due to the still too cold weather. if they could do the pollination trick i'd have fruit for everybody.

can't remember last time i saw a wild honeybee up close and personal.

I've seen a few honeybees, not many. Usually we get a good buzz when the big maple is blooming, but it's too early for that yet. Mason bees are doing "OK" and the tiny wasps are pretty busy. I saw quite a few yellowjackets working the apricot last week -first time I've been glad to see a yellowjacket. We're in western Montana and spring has been a little late this year, it seems. Apple is just leafing out, apricot and nanking cherry in full bloom, pear just starting to bloom.

Just after reading the thread I ran across this article on bee restoration efforts in out local newspaper:

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/05/06/news/top/news01.txt

Mainly bumblebees here. They love nesting in our cedar shingle siding and we have quite a large number of them now. I have had very good pollination on everything this year. Even the pawpaws have lots of little flies on them which I presume are doing the pollination thing.

Scott

No honeybees around here. At least not like the ones I remember as a kid. In the fall when my huge Camellia is in full bloom, it is covered with an insect that looks similar to yellow jackets but not exactly. Anyhow, something is pollinating my apple trees because I have some very small apples about dime size. Maybe its the leafhoppers :)

A couple months ago some construction workers discovered a huge honeybee nest here in Raleigh. There was an article about it. They relocated the nest b/c the diseased oak tree had to go. I was really impressed by that.

http://www.newsobserver.com/926/story/996249.html

Last year, I didn't see any honey bees, only bumble bees. This year, it's the reverse.

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by a Apiary to pick up some raw honey. I spoke with the beekeeper and he was telling me that he felt colony collaspe hasn't hit Maryland. He also said, with authority, that the reason many were losing their hives was because they were starving their bees from their natural food and giving them sugar water and such. He said none of his beekeeper friends were having problems either.

Who knows, but this guy was sure of himself and hasn't had a single problem with his bees. And the guy is really into bees. He had awards plastered all over his shop for beekeeping and his honey. There were bees everywhere too. I felt lucky I walked away without getting stung.

I do have honeybees around as there's a local beekeeper nearby. But the honeybees, or the mason bees for that matter, come out too late for the earliest blooming trees like the plums, pluots and the like. Other small bees and flies seem to fill this niche nicely.
A silver lining of the decline of the honeybee could be the revitalization of the native bees that the honeybee mercilessly overwhelms and outcompetes. No doubt some of them will be employed if the honeybee goes.

I am also hoping that the other native pollinators will fill the hole left by the honey bees. Time will tell: we should know in a few weeks if there are many little apples forming.

I also noticed a bunch of very small, fly-like insects around the trees. Anyone know what they could be?

I see a reasonable number of honeybees and bumblebees here. I have lots and lots of things for them to keep busy pollinating throughout the spring and summer. I have noticed that they especially love the herbs thyme and germander. I suspect that if you want bees to pollinate your fruit trees in the spring it is a good idea to keep them supplied with flowering plants all growing season long.

Rosefolly

The below is the 1st new article I've seen on Honey Bees dying off.

Here is a link that might be useful: Survey: US Honey Bee Deaths ...

I see a lot less, but the 2 grand wild hives that were here for years are gone because of developers cutting the trees down. These big wild hives had to be at least 3 feet across and almost as tall. It is a sad loss.
Still we did have a little activity. Everything seems to have pollinated well.
Our jujube trees are another thing. They pollinate by wasps. On one day, all at the same time, I saw 5 different kinds of wasp all working the flowers. Quite a sight!