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I just ran into an article that they are using drones to pollinate orchards. Has anyone heard of this or better, witnessed this? Does anyone have any knowledge of this at all? Drones used for pollinating, probably nanobots most likely will 'work'. If drones work then who will care about mitigating our practices in gardening to save bees?

drones NY Orchards

stormy
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  • Don't they mean real drones, hence male bees? – benn Jun 08 '18 at 08:13
  • No they don't. Robotics doing pollinating. I am serious. I'll go see if I can post this. Should have seen this coming. Ugh. – stormy Jun 08 '18 at 08:21
  • You are right, no worries, but it is kind of coincidental that they have the same name don't you think. [Here](http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/15/technology/bee-drone-pollination/index.html) is an example of these robotic pollinators. – benn Jun 08 '18 at 08:29
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    It is a coinkydinky for sure. Drones are drones...named after the drone bees...single minded males or single minded robots that take our place. This nauseates me. Why are we humans so arrogant that we think we can do better than what is already in place after millions, billions of years to evolve? What is wrong with us? I remember someone saying that when bees die we die 2 months later. Maybe 6 months later. These drones will cancel any programs to save the bees. Grrrrr. – stormy Jun 08 '18 at 08:47
  • The embedded link in the article gives more detail - I wonder where they collect all the pollen from that the drone copter sprays wholesale across the orchard, though they only did a section of it this time. Be interesting to see if it worked, they won't know for a while... – Bamboo Jun 08 '18 at 08:49
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    I just checked - it looks like the States is still using neonicotinoids with some very minor restrictions, whereas they were banned for use in the open air in Europe from April this year, restricted to closed greenhouse use only https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/27/eu-agrees-total-ban-on-bee-harming-pesticides. Australia and Canada are considering banning, that just leaves the States lagging behind...If the drone pollinator works, you'll probably still be using neonicotinoids in 5 years I'm afraid, Stormy – Bamboo Jun 08 '18 at 08:57
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    Maybe Kim Kardashian needs to talk with Trump again in the name of bees this time. – benn Jun 08 '18 at 08:59
  • Yea, sounds like a plan! But I can't see it working really, b nota, can you? We're all doomed...! – Bamboo Jun 08 '18 at 09:01
  • No me neither, that's why I understand why some people are trying to develop drones instead ;-) – benn Jun 08 '18 at 09:03
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    Yea, I get why they are - but those neonicotinoids are not good for us or the whole planet either... so stormy's concern is valid. – Bamboo Jun 08 '18 at 09:07
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    There's no money to be made in banning neonics, unfortunately, and tons of money to be made in using them. It seems prevailing policy is "who cares when we can all eat Soylent!" - https://www.soylent.com/. This is a real website and a real company. I don't know if they've come up with Soylent Green yet. – Jurp Jun 08 '18 at 11:31
  • @Jurp Oh my word... why would someone call a product Soylent?!.... anyone who's read science fiction knows what soylent green was made out of - wasn't there a film made, didn't have the same name as the original book I vaguely recall... – Bamboo Jun 08 '18 at 15:32
  • @stormy can’t ping you in [chat] - could you go check, please? – Stephie Jun 08 '18 at 19:09

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Having learned a bit about bees this past year, I'm disappointed by articles like the one linked in this question. In the excitement to talk about robots, it doesn't address the details of the bees. I don't even know much about bees, but...here's a few thoughts on the topic. Probably a lot of folks on gardening.stackexchange know this already, but if I could edit the article I'd add in some of the below info.

  • The honey bees people generally raise for honey and pollination are not native to North America. They are not that efficient at pollinating. They do make honey (sweet, delicious, honey).
  • There's a few phrases that people use somewhat interchange-ably for other kinds of bees like "Native bees", Solitary bees, and Mason bees. Those words have specific and different meanings.
  • Mason bees are a group of bees that use mud packed between cocoons like a brick-mason packing mud on something. Blue orchard mason bees seem to be growing in popularity as an alternative to honeybees for early-season pollination. Leafcutter bees are another group of bees native to North America that are active throughout the rest of the summer.
  • Among the native bees, some are solitary and some are communal and some are in between. Even "solitary" bees often live in very close proximity to each other.
  • As growers and suppliers look for alternatives, including robotic drones, there have been successful experiments with native bees. The native bees are more efficient than honey bees at pollinating and require less tending by humans (mason and leaf-cutter bees are less likely to sting and don't have to be sedated with smoke).

I have mixed feelings about the idea of replacing honeybees with native bees. I eat honey and appreciate it as a food source for the world, so it does seem important to keep honey bees alive somewhere. To the extent that honey bee colonies are dying from farming/gardening practices that have other bad side-effects (overuse of herbicides/insecticides, monocultures, heavy-till soil maintenance, overuse of fertilizers) I would rather see those practices curtailed than have effort put into alternatives to honey bees.

At the same time, the idea that honey bees are not native to many parts of earth makes me wonder if trying to sustain honey bees on all continents is really the right, practical, sustainable solution. Perhaps honey bees should be raised in places that are most adaptable for honey bees and farmers/gardeners should look to native bees for their pollination needs.

Some more information on all these different kinds of bees:

  • Crown Bees is a company that sells a variety of items related to bees as pollinators. They sell bees, houses and other accessories for residential and commercial use. They also have a ton of educational content published online.
  • This 2015 article from Wired Magazine You’re Worrying About the Wrong Bees has some good information about the different kinds of bees and the importance of saving them all.
  • The book Bees in Your Backyard (on crownbees.com or Amazon is very scientific and detailed. It was too detailed for me, but getting it from the library and skimming it was helpful.
  • The book Mason Bee Revolution: How the Hardest Working Bee Can Save the World - One Backyard at a Time (on crownbees or Amazon) is more practical advice about native bees.
greggles
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  • There was a few-years-long experiment in commercializing Blue Orchard Mason bees (BOMs) to replace the honey bees carted around to orchards and such - I think it was in California. 'Scientific American' ran a story on it earlier this year - within weeks, the program was cancelled by the company that ran it. The program was very close to raising enough BOMs to replace the honeybees. – Jurp Jun 08 '18 at 23:08
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    @greggies This is a super comment on bees. YAY. – stormy Jun 09 '18 at 09:41
  • @Jurp reading that article was...fascinating and infuriating. I'd love more detail on it. It does seem like it was one large company that made that decision for one type of native bee, so there is possibility still for some more broad use of native bees. – greggles Jun 20 '18 at 18:45