Ken, You make good points concerning a relative lack of direct competition between European honeybees and native pollinators in the US - but we can't necessarily take current dynamics for granted. The preference of native pollinators for different feeding times or species could be either 1) the result of ongoing competition with European honeybees or 2) the result of historical extinction/extirpation of native pollinators that did have behaviors more directly competitive with European honeybees. I would also hesitate to assume that the pollen and nectar food sources that European honeybees monopolize in the present day were surplus in the pre-colonial ecosystem - and certainly not surplus to the extent that trillions of European honeybees could join the foodweb without displacing native species. Still, I agree that we don't have evidence of a native pollinator "holocaust" caused by European honeybees - but then again, the truth of the matter is lost to 400 years of ecosystem alteration... -|<ipp > From: k.preteroti@verizon.net Native pollinators generally work flowers in weather conditions where the honey bee stays at home. I do not believe a Carrying Capacity of the Environment for pollinators has been established.