Urban beekeeping can be bad for wild bees
Urban beekeeping has been touted as a way to boost pollination and improve sustainability, food security and biodiversity in cities. Many people and businesses who've added beehives to their backyards and rooftops (including CBC) say they're doing it to help fight declines in bee populations.
But researchers say urban beekeepers are likely doing just the opposite when it comes to wild bee species.
...Gail MacInnis is a postdoctoral researcher at Concordia University who is studying how beehives are affecting more than 170 wild bee species that live in Montreal, where about 2,000 honeybee hives have been added since 2013.
She noted that most wild bees are solitary and some are only active and able to collect food for two or three weeks of the year, so competition from a hive of 100,000 honeybees can be a huge problem.
She's trying to figure out how many beehives Montreal can sustainably support without harming wild bees, and how many flowers are needed to feed them.Â
[Gail MacInnis, PhD’20, is now a postdoctoral researcher at Concordia University studying how beehives are affecting more than 170 wild bee species that live in Montreal]