How an explosion in urban beekeeping coincided with a decline in wild pollinators
“Just as we wouldn’t advocate keeping backyard chickens to save the birds, we shouldn’t look to beekeeping to save the bees,” say researchers.
By Warren Cornwall
Anthropocene Magazine
May 10, 2023
Excerpt:
Much like growing vegetables in front yards, rooftops and abandoned lots, raising honey bees in in cities is enjoying a surge in popularity. The growing interest in local food production, concern about a decline in pollinator numbers and a more general fascination with fusing city living and nature all deserve credit.
But while city-dwelling bee wranglers might feel like they are adding to their neighborhood’s nature-friendly features, it isn’t that simple. The proliferation of hives might be taking a toll on the other pollinators living there.
“Urban beekeeping is often falsely marketed as a solution to biodiversity loss,” says Carly Ziter, a biology professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. “Just as we wouldn’t advocate keeping backyard chickens to save the birds, we shouldn’t look to beekeeping to save the bees.”
Ziter was part of a group of Montreal scientists who set out to see how an explosion in honey bee hives within their city might be affecting the more than 150 species of wild bees sharing space with 2 million people in this eastern Canada city.
The number of honey bee colonies there recorded by government officials rose from 238 in 2013 to nearly 3,000 by 2020. With as many as 50,000 honey bees in a single hive, that’s a lot of insects scouring neighborhood flowers for pollen. The researchers wondered if this infusion of honey bees might be creating a food shortage for their bee brethren.
