Commercial honey bees may not need saving, but other bee species do; the busy insects need wise-tending

Honey bees are busy and need year-round food supplies.
(Photo by Ciril Jazbecm, The New York Times)

A lack of understanding has kept the "Save the Bees" mantra alive while bee species that need human help remain ignored. "Researchers have found that many species of wild bees are, in fact, declining. So trying to save them makes eminent sense," reports David Segal of The New York Times. "But hobbyists and corporations, not to mention luminaries like Beyoncé and Queen Camilla, are drawn only to the seven or so species of honey bees — the one group supported by a multibillion-dollar agribusiness and that doesn't need the help."

Most people know that honey bees are vital to human food production, and the thought of their disappearance is alarming. But the notion that "all the bees are dying" doesn't stand up to scrutiny. "Honey bees, it turns out, are a commercially managed animal. . . and large beekeeping operations are remarkably adept at replacing colonies that die," Segal explains. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "The number of beehives around the world has risen by nearly 26 percent in the last decade, to 102 million from 81 million." Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Ore., told Segal: "There are now more honey bees on the planet than there have ever been in human history."

In urban areas, beekeeping on restaurant rooftops or as "art" has been hard to discourage, but factually, there are only so many flowers to pollinate. Andrew Coté, president of the New York City Beekeepers Association, was "asked to install hives at the Museum of Modern Art; Segal reports, he declined and said, 'The population is already overwhelming the finite floral resources. We don't need more honey bees here.'"

That is not to say that beekeepers don't have challenges, but restaurants and trendy bee hives are not an overall solution. Steven Savage for Forbes magazine reports, "Randy Oliver, who runs the ScientificBeekeeping.com website, publishes extensively in scientific and industry bee journals and is a sought-after speaker internationally on bee-related topics. From Oliver's perspective, the key challenges fall into three main categories:

• Giving beekeepers the tools they need to deal with the parasites and diseases that affect bee health
• Having adequate 'forage resources' or other feeding options to meet the full-season nutritional needs of the large hive numbers required for the pollination market
• Anticipating the future impact of climate change and the management of agricultural lands on pollinators and the business of beekeeping."