Moving beyond small-scale hive rental, the fact of the matter is that agriculture depends on bees. As much as one-third of all the agricultural products humans consume as food only grow because crops are pollinated by bees. Think about that for a minute. And when I say agriculture, I am including both raising crops and animal husbandry. The valuable service bees provide to local ecosystems make it possible for farms and cattle operations to succeed. Without the bees, farms would suffer.
According to the Ulster Beekeepers Association in Northern Ireland, no fewer than 39 commercial crops in that part of the world are reliant on bee pollination. In addition, bees pollinate clover and alfalfa. Those two crops are used to feed cattle and other farm animals. A lack of clover and alfalfa would make it more difficult to raise both beef and dairy cattle.
There are other pollinators out there. However, none are as prolific as the honeybee. The large-scale agricultural operations that now feed the majority of the world would not be possible without an army of bees doing what they do. If we want to continue feeding the world, we have to maintain healthy bee populations.
Off the farm, bees are still equally important. Those fields of wildflowers you’ve seen on postcards and in movies only exist because bees are there pollinating. Everything from the fertile valleys of the Swiss Alps to the lush, tropical forests of South America exist because of the hard work bees do. Bees are a critical part of nature that we cannot do without.
Beyond commercial agriculture, bees also pollinate the plants, flowers, and trees occurring in nature. Let’s say you were a beekeeper with property bordering the edge of a forest. What you do is helping to keep that forest alive. That’s kind of cool, isn’t it?