No, eating honey can’t be part of the solution to saving the bees, because it’s part of the problem.
Beekeepers are contributing to the decline of native pollinators, which are way more important than a single non-native specie of bee.
“Managed honey bee colonies supplement the work of natural wild pollinators, not the other way around. In a study of 41 different crop systems worldwide, honeybees only increased yield in 14 percent of the crops. Who did all the pollination? Native bees and other insects.”
Apis mellifera, the only specie kept by beekeepers for making honey, isn’t a native specie to the American continent, but even where it is native it’s not supposed to be everywhere and in such great numbers. The result of their introduction is the decline of the pollinators already here, which are often better pollinators and are able to pollinate every plants in the ecosystem they are in, which is not the case of apis mellifera.
From a study in Australia :
“In contrast, native bees were more than three times more abundant at the few sites where honeybees were absent, compared to those where they were present.”
From a study in Israel :
“The results provide partial evidence for behavioral competition between honeybees and native bees. For this reason, we recommend prohibiting introduction of beehives to all nature reserves in Israel, as a precaution aimed at protecting the native bee fauna. This may help conserve their contribution to biodiversity and pollination of common and rare native plants as well as crops.”
From a study in California :
“This pattern suggests that B. occidentalis colonies exposed to competition with Apis experienced increased nectar scarcity and responded by reallocating foragers from pollen to nectar collection, resulting in lowered rates of larval production. These results provide evidence that Apis competitively suppresses a native social bee known to be an important pollinator, with the potential for cascading effects on native plant communities.”
The introduction of apis mellifera is also causing other species of pollinators to get diseases. While beekeepers try to protect their hives from it, the native pollinators aren’t protected at all.
“Diseases that are common in managed honeybee colonies are now widespread in the UK’s wild bumblebees […] Our results suggest that emerging diseases, spread from managed bees, may be an important cause of wild bee decline.”
Native species already suffer from pesticides and habitat loss and you’re only aggravating the situation by buying honey.
Apis mellifera isn’t an endangered specie of bee, and it shouldn’t even exist in a lot of places. Native pollinators, on the other hand, such as the thousands of other bee species, are the one in actual danger of extinction, and some of them are already believed to be extinct.
What could i do then to actually help all the pollinators?
- Well first not buying honey, since it’s contributing to their decline
- Stop eating meat, dairy and eggs, since it requires much more crops in order to produce animal products, which result in much more habitat loss
- Buying organic as much as possible (if possible) for food requiring pollination
- Planting flowers good for pollinators
- Creating homes for pollinators, such as solitary bees
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