Urban beekeeping can be bad for wild bees
She noted that most wild bees are solitary and some are only active and able to collect food for two or three weeks of the year, so competition from a hive of 100,000 honeybees can be a huge problem.
By Emily Chung
CBC News
Aug 07, 2020
Excerpt:
Urban beekeeping has been touted as a way to boost pollination and improve sustainability, food security and biodiversity in cities. Many people and businesses who’ve added beehives to their backyards and rooftops (including CBC) say they’re doing it to help fight declines in bee populations.
But researchers say urban beekeepers are likely doing just the opposite when it comes to wild bee species.
The only bee species kept in beehives is the European honeybee, which is “a non-native species that’s essentially livestock managed by people,” said Charlotte De Keyzer, a Toronto bee researcher and founder of the site bee-washing.com, which fights misinformation about bees.
“So it’s a bit like saying that you’re going to save the birds of Canada by keeping chickens in your backyard.”
Honeybees, which are kept in hives of 50,000 to 100,000, roam across the city and compete with native species for food — nectar and pollen from flowers. A recent study in Paris found fewer wild bees in areas with more beehives, and on average, studies have been finding managed honeybees have a negative impact on wild species.
Gail MacInnis is a postdoctoral researcher at Concordia University who is studying how beehives are affecting more than 170 wild bee species that live in Montreal, where about 2,000 honeybee hives have been added since 2013.
