Beekeepers have a responsibility to advocate for native pollinators

Everyone has heard the phrase "save the bees."

It's on license plates, t-shirts, and newspaper headlines.

For years, honeybees have dominated the conversation—despite the fact that there are over 4,000 species of bees in North America alone.

When people think of bees, they think of honeybees.

And it's true that honeybees face challenges. Beekeepers lost 45.5% of their colonies last year, according to the Bee Informed Partnership which surveys over 22,000 beekeepers across the US.

However, other less-publicized bees are in dire danger. Because these native bees don't offer the same economic benefit that honeybees do, they're overlooked.

The Center for Biological Diversity found that among native bee species with sufficient data to assess (1,437), more than half (749) are declining. One in 4 are imperiled or at risk of extinction.

We believe beekeepers are uniquely positioned to help educate the public about native pollinators.

Not only that, it's our responsibility to do so.

Don’t be alarmed if a native sweat bees lands on you! They’re known to sip sweat to gather salts or other needed minerals.

Why do honeybees get all the attention?

When European colonists arrived in the 1600s, large farms displaced habitats that housed native pollinators. 

Most of these native pollinators were solitary, ground-nesting bees. They could not be easily managed or transported like honeybees.

The colonists brought honeybees as a source of sugar and wax. Soon, farmers came to rely on them for pollination.

Almonds, canola, grapes, apples, watermelons, blueberries, avocados, and other popular crops are all pollinated by honeybees. That is why the health of honeybees is essential. Without apis mellifera, large numbers of farms would struggle to produce crops.

Because of their relationship to our food, the honeybee has received a great amount of media attention.

Today, people are familiar with the products honeybees produce (honey and wax), and they have come to understand honeybees are a keystone for our agriculture and economy.

In the same way that honeybees are vital to food production, native bees are vital to the survival of wild plants.

"Squash bees" aka Peponapis and Xenoglossa. These solitary ground-nesting bees are excellent pollinators of zucchini and butternut squashes.

Habitat and floral diversity are the keys to supporting all pollinators

North Dakota is home to a fourth of commercial honeybee colonies in the summer. Over the course of three years, researchers from the University of Nebraska studied 6 apiaries and 18 surrounding locations.

The scientists compared wild bee success with the survival of managed honeybees.

According to the study, "Wild bee abundance and species diversity were positively correlated with honey production, a measure of honeybee success, indicating that locations supporting successful honeybee colonies also supported successful wild bee communities."

Another study, conducted in Sweden, analyzed the density of bumblebee and honeybee populations across 19 locations.

In sites with heterogeneous landscapes (i.e. those with high floral diversity), honeybees did not appear to lower the density of the bumblebee population.

This detail is crucial because honeybees are strong, generalist pollinators. Native bees on the other hand are often specialists. They may only pollinate one or two species of plants.

Homogenous landscapes disproportionately damage native bees that cannot eat from other food sources. Honeybees can outcompete native bees in these scenarios.

The key to increasing our number of wild pollinators is not to decrease our number of honeybees, it is to increase floral diversity and habitat.

A mining bee (Andrenidae spp.) native to North Carolina. Photo by Matt Bertone, Director, Plant Disease and Insect Clinic at NCSU.

What can beekeepers do to help native bees?

First and foremost, for beekeepers to help native bees, we must practice responsible beekeeping.

Anyone who decides to take up beekeeping, must first learn how to identify and monitor their colonies for pests and disease. Unhealthy colonies can spread disease to native bees.

Outside of the hive, we must ensure the enthusiasm the public has for honeybees spills over to other species.

Their passion and energy should be channeled toward actions such as:

Swapping lawns for gardens full of native flowers. The US Forest Service explains that native plants promote biodiversity and require less water. Avoid hybrid seeds that may produce little pollen or nectar.

Reducing the use of pesticides. Common mosquito suppressants such as bifenthrin are deadly to all insects, native bees included. And according to the Xceres society, they also degrade habitat by removing or contaminating flowering plants. Beekeepers should actively share information with their neighbors about how to control mosquitos without harming bees.

Preserving habitats. Before you call a tree service to remove your fallen tree, consider leaving it. They provide shelter for native bees. Some solitary bees build nests in abandoned beetle tunnels in snags. You can also attract wood-nesting bees with artificial nests (aka pollinator hotels). Areas of bare ground or piles of excavated soil provide shelter for ground-nesting bees.

All of us have a responsibility to promote pollinator diversity, especially beekeepers.

Final thoughts

At Buddha Bee, our goal is to help people fall in love with nature—starting with honeybees.

Beekeeping is a gateway to get communities to think about the many ways in which we are all interconnected, and to become responsible stewards of their environment. 

We’re excited to see the growing number of people beginning to ask about other kinds of bees.

Anyone with a beehive has a unique opportunity to get neighbors excited about all kinds of bees: mining bees, cellophane bees, sweat bees, leaf cutter bees, the list goes on!

All of these bees need us. To save them, we need to keep our hives healthy to prevent the spread of pathogens.

And we need to advocate for floral diversity and increased habitat for them.

High plant diversity enhances and stabilizes frequent flower visitations from pollinators. Not only that, flower diversity may mitigate insecticide effects.

Who wouldn’t want that? 

Ultimately, what’s good for natives bees is good for honeybees. 

Together, responsible beekeepers can be a force that pushes for changes that benefit all pollinators.

If you’d like to learn more about native bees, NC State offers an excellent identification guide. The North Carolina Wildlife Foundation has a free lecture titled “Get to Know the Wild Bees in Your Yard” that we also recommend.