Honeybees Vs Native Bees

When the “save the bees” campaign began to circulate, many people associated this mission with honeybees. While honeybees are valuable to our agricultural systems in the US, they are not native and should not be the focus of our conservation efforts. In New England, we have many native bee species— many of which are currently “at-risk” due to loss of habitat and loss of specific native plants. Native bees and other pollinators create specific plant-pollinator relationships and when these plants become scarce, so do our bees. Here at DNP, one of our mottos is “if you plant it they will come” and that really speaks to creating a safe and welcoming environment for our native bees. Building biodiversity is crucial to strengthening our ecosystems. Honeybees are also known to compete with our native bees for resources, and as you will find out in this informative video by Rich Hatfield and the XERCES Society, one honeybee hive can utilize the resources equal to 100,000 native bees! Check out the video below to understand how to protect our native bees and keep honeybees safely.

If you would like to learn more about native bee habitats and how to provide safe spaces for native bees to nest in your yard check out this great article also supplied by XERCES.