Do you have impression that the honeybee is the best known bee species, and that sometimes impairs the wild bee protection? I often see the reasoning like: “There are too few bees in the world? Let’s become beekeepers and make apiaries!”.
Although bees are really important and we would like to have them more in the world, their species diversity is also crucial. The honeybee is currently more a farm animal than a wild bee, and in many regions beekeeping made its population to rise too high. I just read a new article about this. It is in German, and if you know this language, I recommend reading this interesting paper. It describes problems caused by the presence of the honeybee (mostly, by its too large population) to the wild bees, and gives advice what can be done to reduce the negative impact.
It is important to note that when we postulate that the numbers of honeybees should be reduced, it’s not against the welfare of the honeybees.They also suffer when their density is too high. And they have all the right to live peacefully and be properly cared for by beekeepers! Making sure that the honeybees are in the best health condition also reduces the risk of transmiting diseases to wild species.
Non-honey bees 