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Rise in urban beekeeping may be crowding out native bee species

In Montreal, Canada, the diversity of wild bee species has fallen in areas where honeybee colonies have proliferated

By Brian Owens

15 February 2023

A beekeeper tends to a honeybee hive

The past decade has seen a boom in urban beekeeping

Westend61/Vasily Pindyurin/Getty Images

Efforts to “save the bees” by encouraging urban beekeeping over the past decade may have been good for honeybees, but wild, native bees appear to be paying the price.

Researchers in Montreal, Canada, surveyed wild bee populations across the city in 2020 and found that the diversity of species of wild bees was lower in areas with higher concentrations of honeybee hives.

The overall bee diversity in the city also dropped since the survey was last done in 2013, before an …

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