Slide 15 of 17

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Slide 15 of 17

Notes:

However, bee reproduction and larval mortality are also adversely affected by high density of nests in the bee shelters. To reduce these problems, different recommendations are needed to prevent bees from interfering with each other in their nest provisioning behavior. For example, bee boards could have fewer tunnels spaced farther apart. More shelters could be used, each with fewer bees. However, this raises another set of tradeoffs: reducing the density of bees in shelters could require more handling time by the grower, more bee boards for a given bee population, more shelters in a field, and thus increased costs of management. How much of an improvement in bee yields is possible for a given change in bee shelters and boards? Is the change cost effective? These are additional questions for the future.