An interesting Quote from "Bradbury’s Travels in the Interior of America in the Years 1809-1811"

"The honey bees have been introduced into this continent from Europe, but at what time I have not been able to ascertain. Even if it be admitted that they were brought over soon after the first settlement took place, their increase since appears astonishing, as bees are found in all parts of the United States; and since they have entered upon the fine countries of the Illinois and Upper Louisiana, their progress westward has been surprisingly rapid. It is generally known in Upper Louisiana, that bees had not been found westward of the Mississippi prior to the year 1797 (At that time the natural history of the bee was not very well known at St. Louis. They relate there, that a French lady of that place having received a present of honey from Kaskaskias, was much delighted with it, and being told it was produced by a kind of fly, she sent a negro with a small box to Kaskaskias (60 miles) to get a pair of the flies, in order that she might obtain the breed)

If you're not familiar with apiculture, that's not the way it's done.

They are now found as high up the Missouri as the Maha nation, having moved westward to the distance of 600 miles in fourteen years. ..Bees have spread over this continent in a degree, and with a celerity so nearly corresponding with that of the Anglo-Americans, that it has given rise to a belief, both amongst the Indians and the Whites, that bees are their precursors, and that to whatever part they go the white people will follow. I am of opinion that they are right,"

The honey bee is the only one of the 30,000 bees that is actually an industrial bi product and besides that has multiple industries already supporting its success. So is it a good Apidea poster child?

*Mike my words: Fear of declining honey bee populations are an industrial myth like municipal recycling programs