Impacts of Honey Bees on Native Pollinator Dynamics

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) occupy a unique position as managed pollinators with global distribution, often introduced into landscapes where native pollinator assemblages evolved in their absence. Their high abundance and foraging efficiency can lead to exploitative competition with wild bees for nectar and pollen, potentially reducing the fitness, abundance and diversity of indigenous species. Beyond direct competition, honey bees may alter plant reproductive success through pollen depletion or inefficient pollen transfer when acting as “pollen wasters”, especially in specialised systems such as orchids. High-density beekeeping can restructure plant–pollinator networks, diminishing the diversity of interaction partners, undermining network nestedness and impairing pollination services provided by wild pollinators. Managed honey bees also act as reservoirs and vectors of pathogens, creating additional pressures on native bee health. These interlinked effects have been documented in agricultural, natural and urban settings, generating calls for evidence-based management of colony densities, spatial regulation of apiary placement and enhancement of floral resources to safeguard wild pollinator communities and the ecosystem services they sustain.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A 2024 study on orchid communities revealed that introduced honey bees remove substantial quantities of pollen but rarely deposit it effectively, acting as pollen wasters and risking pollen depletion in habitats where native pollinators have declined. Work on farms showed that the addition of honey bee hives reduced wild bee abundance by nearly half and cut species richness by one-fifth, while also depressing fruit yields of pollinator-dependent crops, even when wildflower strips were present. Experimental manipulation of hive density in natural scrubland demonstrated that establishing beehives led to a marked loss of wild pollinator diversity, disruption of network architecture and reduced reproductive success of plant species primarily visited by wild bees. These findings highlight how honey bee management practices can cascade through ecological networks, with lasting impacts on biodiversity and crop production.

Impacts of Honey Bees on Native Pollinator Dynamics publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in impacts of honey bees on native pollinator dynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Exploitative competition: Consumption of shared floral resources by one species reduces availability to others.

Pollen depletion: Reduction in pollen quantity or quality due to excessive removal by foragers.

Pollination network: A representation of interactions between pollinator species and the plants they visit, often analysed in terms of structure and connectivity.

Common-pool resource: A resource system from which multiple actors draw, risking overexploitation without coordinated governance.

Pathogen spillover: Transmission of diseases from managed or non-native species to wild populations, potentially increasing infection rates in native pollinators.

References

1. Evidence of introduced honeybees (Apis mellifera) as pollen wasters in orchid pollination. Scientific Reports (2024).
2. Honey bee hives decrease wild bee abundance, species richness, and fruit count on farms regardless of wildflower strips. Scientific Reports (2021).
3. Honeybees disrupt the structure and functionality of plant-pollinator networks. Scientific Reports (2019).
4. Competition between wild and honey bees: Floral resources as a common good providing multiple ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services (2023).
5. Decline in wild bee species richness associated with honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) abundance in an urban ecosystem. PeerJ (2023).