The Problem with Honey Bees - Scientific American

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Page 1 of 22 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-honey-bees/ C O N S E R V A T I O N | O P I N I O N The Problem with Honey They’re important for agriculture, but they’re not so good for the en Save 25% on all subscriptions Subscribe By Alison McAfee on November 4, 2020

Page 2 of 22 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-honey-bees/ Credit: Ed Peeters Getty Images To many people, honey bees symbolize prosperity, sustainability and environmentalism. But as a honey you that only the first item on that list is defensible. Although they are important for agriculture, honey ecosystems by competing with native bees—some of which are species at risk. The rise in hobby beekeeping , now a trendy activity for hundreds of thousands of Americans, followed s to “save the bees.” But as a species, honey bees are least in need of saving. Media attention disproportio native pollinators, and murky messaging has led many citizens—myself once included—to believe they a environment by putting on a beekeeper’s veil. Unfortunately, they are probably doing more harm than g “Beekeeping is for people; it's not a conservation practice,” says Sheila Colla, an assistant professor and Toronto’s York University, Canada. “People mistakenly think keeping honey bees, or helping honey bee native bees, which are at risk of extinction."

Page 3 of 22 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-honey-bees/ Colla recently published an analysis of nearly a thousand comments submitted by citizens in response t Health Action Plan —a proposal that involved a plan for stricter neonicotinoid pesticide regulations. Des in bees and pollination and strong support of tighter pesticide regulations, Colla and her colleagues fou surprisingly poor understanding of the diversity of pollinators and their roles in pollination. “The focus on neonics [a kind of pesticide] and honey bees has taken a ton of resources away from cons their most important threats,” Colla says. She is justifiably frustrated at the misappropriated attention o from a conservationist’s point of view, native bees are the ones in more dire need of support. And while honey bee–centric businesses often support initiatives that benefit native bees, such as devel the financial contributions pale in comparison to what could be achieved if funds were applied to these “Beekeeping companies and various non-science-based initiatives have financially benefitted from the d Colla explains. “These resources thus were not allocated to the actual issue people are concerned about. For some reason, maybe because they are small, honey bees are not generally viewed as the massively d that they are. There are millions of honey bee colonies in North America, 2.8 million of which are in the 30,000 bees per colony (the size of a pollination unit ), that’s roughly a billion honey bees in Canada and triple the number of people. High densities of honey bee colonies increase competition between native pollinators for forage, putting wild species that are already in decline. Honey bees are extreme generalist foragers and monopolize flor exploitative competition—that is, where one species uses up a resource, not leaving enough to go aroun A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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