The bee that everyone wants to save

My wife and I had wanted honey bees for a long time, but when we finally moved to a place that we could have had them, we noticed that we regularly saw at least 5 native bee species. We decided not to get a hive since they compete for resources and can spread disease. Given that there are neighbors that have them within about a mile, and that either those or feral colonies are close enough that we also see honey bees around, I'm not sure how much difference it makes, but we don't regret the decision.

> The honeybee is not endangered. It never was.

There are several severe threats to honey bees which without human intervention would cause a significant number of hives to be lost.

There's the varroa mite and the things it carries like deformed wing virus, then there is the increasingly prevalent Asian hornet which European honey bees are unable to deal with, and colony collapse disorder where the bees literally disappear for reasons we current don't understand, and climate change is causing colonies to starve over the winter.

Honey bees are not going extinct tomorrow but they are not doing well.

Just last weekend my kids were climbing the magnolia tree on the side of my house and I noticed dozens of little bees flying along the ground underneath it. My kids were a little freaked out even though I reassured them that the bees almost definitely wouldn't sting them.

I also noticed dozens of tiny half centimeter diameter holes in the ground under that magnolia tree which I guessed were little bee burrows. This sent me down a rabbit hole of trying to identify what type of bee these were. Long story short, there are way too many types of bees (30,000+ according to my research) for a non specialist like me to be able to pinpoint a species. But whatever type of bee (miner/sweat) they are going to go absolutely nuts when that magnolia tree blooms in the next couple weeks.

Very well said, also many other non bees are also pollinators, such as butterflies, some beetles.. even ants. Any flower is a hotspot of life.

Tangential, have a look at a Gaussian splat of a honeybee I recently captured: https://superspl.at/scene/3ae6a716

I have a couple of hives of the local native tetragonula stingless bee in my yard. It does feel quite special to see them foraging and returning laden with various brightly coloured balls of pollen on their legs. I’ve managed to propagate two hives, one I split and gave to my children’s kindy, the other started from a swarm which attacked one of my hives. I read that if you move the hive and put an empty one in its place the swarm might colonise it and that is exactly what happened and a friend now has that one. We also get a lot of blue banded bee and teddy bear bees in our garden. It’s comparatively uncommon to see a honey bee.

As with all things commercial, my neighbour keeps 40 hives and extracts too much honey in the autumn, resulting in desperate hungry bees in the spring that get very aggressive. If he left them more honey (less profits), they wouldnt be as hungry or aggressive. The entire neighbourhood suffers due to the antics of a single owner. Legally, he’s within the council regulations so there is nothing we can do … Its impossible to sit outside from 9am-6pm in April and May. Once there is enough food, they calm down.

In Brazil we have tiny native bees that don't sting. They make wax tunnels and the colonies grow very very slowly. I've been watching one for 20 years and it doesn't even seem to have doubled in size. They have suffered a lot with deforestation.

My wife has planted an over abundance of native plants on our property, eliminating 60-70% of the turf grass. The resulting bee population increase has been phenomenal to watch. Also, using leafs dropped in the fall as mulch provides the habitat for lightning bugs and the population boom experienced in the years after we started doing this has exploded. Summer nights are magical again

Some carpenter bees moved into my roof overhang. Last year it was two, this year it’s closer to 10. I like them, the only problem is they burrow into my house and leave little piles of sawdust behind.

There is plenty of old fencing, a stack of logs, but they like my house.

Appreciate the write up! I’ve always wanted a hive on my property. I’ve seen some carpenter bees and bumblebees at work around the garden and this is giving me second thoughts about introducing more competition for them via honeybees.

I think I’ll let nature take its course here and enjoy the natural wild life.

Such issues is what brought us to keep native honeybee species where I live, and not the domestic Western bees. The productivity may not be as high as the domestic bee, but we still get honey and it's very good! You would also notice the difference in taste. Apis mellifera honey is usually sweeter than the Asian honeybee, and not as prone to fermentation. A slightly fermented honey is also super good!

Every few years there is one species that captures public attention and gets all the conservation energy. Rarely the ones that need it most.

My garden is full of fleabane flowers in heaping piles. I wonder if that helps native pollinators or if I am providing flowers for honey bees instead.

Humble recommendation;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002t686/my-garden-of...

(Wildlife film-maker Martin Dohrn is bee obsessed. He has found over 60 species in his Bristol garden and sets out to film them, with mind-blowing results.)

Highly recommend the writing of Dave Goulson[0] about bees and meadow ecosystems more broadly. I’ve read A Buzz in the Meadow and A Sting in the Tale and enjoyed them both.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/323591.Dave_Goulson

The author lost me at the end when they said to stop pulling up dandelions. Dandelions are not a native species (at least in North America) and are not a good food source for native pollinators.

does anyone else detect llm tone in this post?

TL; DR Honeybees aren’t native to the Americas. Bumblebees are. And bumblebees get outcompeted by honeybees. That’s terrible, because bumblebees promote plant biodiversity in a way generalist honeybees do not. Putting a honeybee hive in your yard or on your balcony is fine. But it’s agriculture, not conservation.

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