The ONE EASIEST Way To Help The Bees

Even if you’re just mildly interested in nature, gardening, or conservation, you’ve probably heard that our pollinators need help.

Well, the absolute easiest way to help bees might surprise you:

It is to NOT become a backyard beekeeper.

HUH?!

Honey bees are NOT at risk for extinction

When people talk about urban and suburban beekeeping, they’re talking about honey bees. They’re the most famous bee in the world. They’re cute and make delicious honey.

But they are NOT endangered.

Yes, it’s been a struggle for beekeepers to maintain the population of honey bees. But that’s a problem for farms and big agriculture because they buy bees to pollinate their acres of crops.

That’s an issue of economics, not conservation.

 

Native bees ARE threatened

Honey bees are native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; but not here in North America. We have roughly 4,000 native bee species here and about a quarter of them ARE at risk for extinction.

The problem with having a backyard honey bee hive is that it introduces tens of thousands of hungry little mouths. And there simply isn’t enough nectar and pollen to go around to feed our native bees.

If you, as a regular person, want to use your yard or balcony to help bees that are at ACTUAL risk of extinction, then honey bees are a problem.

Plant native plants

In North America, we have native mason bees, leaf-cutter bees, miner bees, sweat bees, bumble bees, and more. A great way to help them is to plant native plants.

Most native bees prefer or even require pollen from native flowers; around 25% of our native bees will only forage from one or two native plant types.

A diverse selection of native plants is key to having a diversity of native bees. But if you’re just starting out, make it easy!

Goldenrod and Aster are a dynamic duo that are beloved by many native bees. There are many species of both, so just check which species are native to your region.

 

Doing nothing is better than honey beekeeping

So remember, if you only do one thing to help the bees, make it NOT becoming a backyard beekeeper.

If you’re interested in any stickers to show off your love of native bees, here are some you might enjoy!