A very good friend of mine, his dad use to have bees. They lived on a half acre lot and none of the neighbors ever had any problem with them, in fact if he did not tell anyone they probably would never know they were there. I heard some crazy stories of him transporting the hives in his car (sometimes I think he used his truck) and having to stop and get gas with the bees all over him. Apparently they did not sting him much (or he did not mind it) and they must not have bothered anyone else. I could only imagine the looks he must have got walking around with a bunch of bees all over him, makes me laugh every time I think about it.

That would have been too funny to see!! Can you imagine the looks! LOL .I am going to do some more research on the Mason bee, suppose to be gentle. I live on about 5 acres, and always seem to have a good amount of bees, although they were late year, due to cooler weather and I thought about hand pollination on my squash plants. I was just wondering if anyone eles was concerned asbout the declining bee population and if they were taking any action. Thanks for the good laugh.

I have mixed feelings on whether the honeybees are all that they are cracked up to do. I purchased 2 colonies again this spring after being without for a number of years because I didn't want to treat bees regularly for diseases and parasites. But now I feel relieved that I can take their honey and let them die annually. This was the suggestion of a specialist.

When it comes to polination of fruits I see far more activity from sweat bees and bumblebees. In squash crops the squash bee does a far better job because they pollonate in early morning when the squash flowers are open. For early spring or greenhouses bumblebees are superior although I've never purchased them.

Swarming becomes a problem if you have overcrowding or queen problems. I always looked at swarming favorably as a way to expand colony numbers since I hardly ever had swarms that were impossible to retrieve. You just need to get them boxed early, when they are gorged with honey and more mild tempered.