Keeping bees has become trendy. The thought of fresh honey at home is tantalizing! There is also a notion that beekeeping is good for the environment.
Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Honey bees are generally imported and not native to the ecosystems they are housed. This puts stress on wild bee populations.
But, honey bees don't need saving. It is our wild bee populations that are at risk of extinction. Yes, honey bees are being negatively affected by pesticides, which is bad.
But our focus on that issue has diverted our attention from the real conservation issue: The possible loss of wild bee populations.
Although bee-centric businesses do support initiatives that help wild bees, they need to focus on wild bee health. Sheila Colla, a conservation biologist, explained to Scientific American:
“Beekeeping companies and various non-science-based initiatives have financially benefitted from the decline of native pollinators. [...] These resources thus were not allocated to the actual issue people are concerned about.”
There are 2.8 million honey bee colonies in North America, each with about 30,000 bees. We are talking a billion bees!
These bees are in competition with our wild bee populations, which are declining. Honey bees disrupt our ecosystem and threaten our wild bee populations.
A study in Scientific Reports looked at the impact of introducing honey bees on wild bee populations. The researchers compared data from the Canary Islands before and after honey bees were introduced in 2007.
They found that wild bee populations declined in areas with high-density beekeeping.
Beekeeping is not an eco-friendly sustainable hobby. But bees are fascinating and pretty darn cute. There are other ways to welcome their presence in our garden.
Plant flowers that benefit wild bees. Build a bee bath. Consider opening a bee hotel. We can still have bees in our lives, even if we aren't beekeepers.
h/t: Scientific American
