The importance of Honeybees

Honey bees - pros and cons

To avoid confusion, “bee” should always be prefixed by a qualifier, e.g., bumble, solitary, honey. The default meaning of “bee” on this site is honeybee. For scientists, it makes more sense to place a space between the honey and bee; I fancy being a bit of both.

This section could help a school project. It’s a bit of a list, so I’ll forgive you if you hop down the headings.

1. Honeybees enable monocultures

   Only honeybees can provide the massive bursts of pollinators that crops require. Almond growers are entirely dependent on honey bees.

2. Honey enables a more varied, less healthy, more enjoyable diet.

3. High-intensity beekeeping negatively impacts wild pollinators.

   • Any sentiment that managed bees are “good” is suspect from the start. Man upsets the natural balance wherever he lives. Pumping hoards of honeybees into the environment is not natural.

   • Research in Tenerife found that honey bees shared nectar sources with wild pollinators until the colony populations expanded for the main flow when they almost entirely monopolised it.

   • Beekeeping “impairs pollination services by wild pollinators by reducing the reproductive success of those plant species highly visited by honeybees. High-density beekeeping in natural areas appears to have lasting, more serious negative impacts on biodiversity than was previously assumed...." Valido et al.

4. Due to man, honeybees are the most common pollinators in natural habitats

   In one study, “they averaged 13% of floral visits across all networks (range 0–85%), with 5% of plant species recorded as being exclusively visited by A. mellifera. For 33% of the networks and 49% of plant species, A. mellifera visitation was never observed. ” Keng-Lou James Hung et al. discuss the complexity of the interaction between bees, plants, and other pollinators.

5. We could manage if there were few honeybees, so long as the change was gradual.

   Some people contest this. However, with suitable habitat provision and a variety of crops rather than monocultures, wild pollinators could do the work of honeybees. The caveat is that only honey bees can provide bursts of pollinators early in the season. Entirely self-fertile fruit like Granny Smith, Braeburn apples and conference pears would still be available. There are self-fertile varieties of Almonds, Chestnuts and Cob nuts

6. “For one of every three bites you eat, you should thank a bee, butterfly, bat, bird, or other pollinator.” No! It depends on your diet!

   Note that honeybees are not the only animal pollinators mentioned here. Various iterations are widely cited. The following version was produced to gain a better perspective: “Out of the 115 crops studied, 87 depend to some degree upon animal pollination, accounting for one-third of crop production globally. Of those crops, 13 rely entirely upon animal pollinators, 30 are greatly dependent, and 27 are moderately dependent.” This version has not caught on! If only people would listen, we could put a stake in the heart of this misinformation, at least in America, May Baumhaun explains.

7. The numbers depicting how vital pollinators are for crops vary from 30 - 84%.

   Hannah Ritchie explains: The figures say nothing about the nutritional content of foods and how much they are included in our diet. Imagine the diet of people living on less than two dollars a day compared with healthy Mormons.

8. Somehow, a belief that we need to save honey bees is perpetuated in the UK.

   Beekeepers have been happy to ride the wave. Britain's current number of honey bee hives is the same as in 1956.

   “So the answer to the question, ‘Have honey bees declined in Britain?’ is a resounding NO! …. So, if you want to “Save the Bees” or otherwise support pollinators, please focus on the wild, unmanaged species, e.g., bumble, solitary bees, and hoverflies rather than the managed Western Honeybee." Prof Jeff Ollerton.

@ Prof Ollerton. Hive numbers versus years. The different coloured lines represent data sources.

Note how bees were decimated by the Isle of Wight disease in 1920

9. Disease Spillover

There is circumstantial but compelling evidence that diseases are passed from honey bees to other bees and arthropods. Honeybees may drive wild pollinators to decline, and you’ll never know. Reports are increasing. Review the evidence: look at the diagram below and Antonio Nanetti et al.

10. Bacteria in wounds are destroyed by medical-grade Manuka honey

Besides that proven benefit, a mixture of honey and lemon makes a sore throat feel tolerable.