Our position
Honey bees and wild bees: together, not against each other
Again and again you hear that the honey bee competes with the wild bee and is partly to blame for its decline. As professional beekeepers, we take a clear stance on this – factual, without blame, but with experience from daily practice.
We live nature conservation, we don't just talk about it
We beekeepers plant flower meadows, flowering trees and bee trees and look after our colonies all year round – because without careful tending there would be neither healthy bees nor a yield. And we seek dialogue with farmers, raise awareness about pesticides and work on solutions. Our principle: always together, never against each other.
The reality of farming
Agriculture thinks in large areas – and large areas need a lot of pollinating bees. Two or three colonies kept by a hobby beekeeper are simply not enough. Over 75% of our most important food crops benefit from animal pollination. Wild bees alone cannot deliver this service. Farming that has to feed more than eight billion people depends on the honey bee. Anyone who criticises this should answer the counter-question: what is the alternative? Incidentally, even those who eat a purely plant-based diet would have little on their plate without pollination.
What science does (not) say
To this day there is no evidence that the honey bee is the main cause of the decline of wild bees. The real drivers have long been known: loss of habitat, monocultures, pesticides and climate change. It is worth asking who actually benefits from steering the discussion towards a supposed conflict between honey bees and wild bees – and thereby distracting from the real causes.
The real problem: pesticides and a lack of information
In conversations with farmers, we repeatedly find that they are not fully informed by crop-protection advisers. One example is the bee hazard classification. A product labelled B4 is considered “not hazardous to bees” – many farmers rely on this and believe it is completely harmless. What often goes unmentioned: this classification applies to the individual product. One yardstick is the LD₅₀ value – the dose at which half of the test bees would die. With a B4 product, this critical value is not reached at the recommended application rate. However, if the farmer mixes two B4 products in the tank, they can reinforce each other and become considerably more dangerous to bees – up to an effect that corresponds more closely to a B2 product that is hazardous to bees. Such interactions are talked about far too rarely in advisory sessions.
Our approach: on equal terms
That is exactly why we professional beekeepers talk to farmers every day – not from above, but on equal terms. We have to adapt to this world and make it better step by step. This is not achieved through blame, but through knowledge, respect and honest cooperation – for the benefit of all bees, honey bees and wild bees alike.