# General beekeeping > Native honeybees >  Corbicula V scopae

## Greengage

There I was minding my own business, When another honey beekeeper starts talking about the benifit of honey bees to pollinating crops and how important they are and if they all died (We are talking honey bees here) we would all be dead in four years.
Jeez note to oneself please remain quiet its none of your business but no I had to have my speak!!! I disagree, the only benifit honey bees have over other pollinators is that  1. they over winter as a colony so they are on the wing earlier before native pollinators and have a colony to pollinate crops, 2.They forage over a greater distance than other pollinators, 3. they exhibit floral fidility (Big deal) and 4. they store excess honey (The real reason we keep honey bees) probably the only reason most beekeepers keep honey bees.
Yes they said but if honey bees are not pollinating apples and OSR there would be no other bees to pollinate crops early in the year so you (Meaning me) are talking nonsense.
Never shy to put up an arguement.

Ok honey bees collect pollen and use it to feed larvae back at the hive and in turn pollinate crops when collecting it, True says I but they only accidently pollinate crops they are collecting from and if any is stuck to their bodies they can cross pollinate, but here is the thing. If honey bees collect pollen it is stored in their pollen baskets or corbicula and it is tightly packed with nectar added and shiny in colour and is useless to other plants but other pollinators collect pollen in a different fashion it is collected on their bodies not in a pollen basket but on their scopae here it is not packed tight and shiny or have nectar in it and it is available to all plants visited by these pollinators if it is compatible. Therefore they are better pollinators than honey bees. Honey bees have bigger numbers out collecting but that does not neccessarly mean they are better pollinators.
I dont think I won the arguement but I made my point and he is a second generation beekeeper so he would know better than me.

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## gavin

Thankfully it is not all for the bees.  There is also the flowers' share.



There was some research from the University of St Andrews (years ago) that showed bumble bees to be much better pollinators of soft fruit on an individual basis.  The same must apply to red mason bees and the Andrenas up and about early in the year on top fruit.

You have to watch out for those second generation beekeepers ;-)

Ah, willows!  It will not be that long before the season is properly underway again.  Nucs are flying well again today (not necessarily a good thing of course)

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## Greengage

I couldnt think of the word Viable, Should have said once it is pushed onto the corbicula it is not viable for pollination. My popularity is waning, for 2017 I promise to be good.Do not go to meetings if you cannot behave, Do not do exams, Do not question second and third generation beekeepers.  :Wink:

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## fatshark

I think Keith Delaplane has also done some comparative research on the relative quality of pollination by different sorts of bees ... US crops, but the principle remains the same.

Th 'all dead in 4 years' quote was supposed to be Einstein, but wasn't. Everything Einstein uttered was recorded. It's apocryphal.

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