Researchers in Cambridge, England, recorded honeybees winning most flower contests and pushing rivals aside, a finding that complicates the popular "save the bees" message.

The insect most people picture when they hear "save the bees" may be crowding out the bees many plants rely on. In a two-year field study near Cambridge, England, researchers at Anglia Ruskin University found that honeybees won most direct contests for flowers and often started the confrontations themselves.

The work, published in Ecological Entomology, recorded honeybees physically pushing or chasing other pollinators off blossoms in at least 20 percent of the encounters they won. Where honeybees were more numerous, bumble bees, solitary bees and hoverflies were generally scarcer.

That matters for gardeners and hobby beekeepers in the United States as well as Britain. Honeybees are managed livestock, and in North America they are not native. The thousands of wild bee species that share the same flowers do work honeybees cannot always do, and they get no help from a hive box.

Pushing, Chasing and Winning at the Flower

Lead author Victoria Buckle, a doctoral student at Anglia Ruskin, and colleagues watched five sites in and around Cambridge, each within 300 meters (about 1,000 feet) of an established honeybee colony. Over 93 hours of observation, they recorded every time one insect interrupted or blocked another's access to a flower on bramble and ivy, two common late-season food plants.

Each encounter was scored as a win, a loss or a share. Honeybees won a larger share of their encounters than any other group. Other pollinators avoided honeybees in 28 percent of interactions on bramble and 36 percent on ivy.

Density mattered. On bramble, doubling the number of honeybees was associated with a 14 percent drop in bumblebee numbers. On ivy, more honeybees meant fewer solitary bees and hoverflies. Contests were also more frequent in warmer conditions, when heat stress can cut nectar output and concentrate competition over less food.

One insect pushed back — the ivy bee, a solitary species first recorded in Britain in 2001, was the only pollinator seen actively challenging honeybees, and it sometimes won. The researchers said it was the first time, to their knowledge, that such behavior had been documented.

Native Bees Do Jobs Honeybees Cannot

The concern is not simply that wild bees go hungry. Many native bees are more effective pollinators for particular plants.

Bumble bees use buzz pollination, gripping a flower and vibrating their flight muscles to shake pollen loose from deep pores in the anther. Honeybees do not do this. According to a Xerces Society fact sheet hosted by the University of Minnesota, buzz pollination benefits tomatoes, peppers, cranberries, and blueberries. The same fact sheet says roughly 250 female orchard mason bees can pollinate an acre of apples, work that would take about 15,000 to 20,000 honeybees.

North America has about 4,000 native bee species, and many of them nest alone in the ground or in hollow stems. Squash bees, for example, specialize in pumpkins and squash and begin foraging before dawn. Native wildflowers that evolved with these specialists can depend on them for seed production.

If honeybees take the lion's share of nectar and pollen in a small area, the bees that pollinate those plants best may have less to eat. That is the pathway the Cambridge findings point to, though the study itself did not measure fruit or seed set.

An Observational Study with Clear Limits

The evidence here is observational. The researchers counted behavior and abundance in the field, and the link between honeybee density and fewer wild pollinators is an association, not proof that honeybees caused the declines. The study covered two plant species, five sites and one region of England over two years.

The warming connection rests partly on patterns the team observed and partly on earlier research. Bumble bees and hoverflies are sensitive to high temperatures, while honeybees tend to become more active as it warms, which could tilt competition further toward hives in hotter summers.

The authors were careful about how the work should be used. "The aim of our study was not to discourage beekeeping," Buckle said in the university's release, adding that the goal is to help honeybees and wild pollinators coexist. The team singled out places with dense hives, such as cities, as the settings where balance matters most.

The study also gives context for a broader trend in Britain, where the number of registered beekeepers rose from 19,000 in 2010 to 47,000 in the most recent count cited by the researchers.

Backyard Hives and Pollinator Gardens

For households, the practical lesson is simple — helping pollinators and keeping honeybees are not the same thing. People who want to support wild bees can plant a mix of native flowers that bloom from spring through fall, leave patches of bare ground and dead stems for nesting, and limit pesticide use.

Anyone considering a backyard hive can check how many colonies are already kept nearby. Local beekeeping associations and state agriculture departments often track apiary registrations, and a hive added to a neighborhood that already has many may add competition without adding much pollination.

Existing beekeepers do not need to remove hives based on this study. Reasonable steps include avoiding overstocking, planting extra forage close to the hive, and supporting habitat projects for native bees. Farmers who rent honeybees for crops such as almonds or blueberries can ask extension agents whether native pollinators could supplement or partly replace rented colonies.

Researchers still need to test whether reducing hive density helps wild bees recover, and whether the effect holds in North American cities and farms. Until then, the safest conclusion is a modest one: honeybees are a farm animal, and wild bees need space and food of their own.

What Readers Want to Know

What did the study find? Honeybees won most contests for flowers, often started them, and were associated with fewer bumblebees, solitary bees, and hoverflies where they were dense.

Where was the research done? At five sites in and around Cambridge, England, over two years, on bramble and ivy flowers.

Does this prove honeybees cause wild bee declines? No. It is an observational study that found an association, not direct cause and effect.

Why do native bees matter for food crops? Some, like bumble bees, buzz-pollinate tomatoes, peppers, and blueberries, which honeybees cannot do.

Should I stop keeping bees? The authors say no. Avoid overstocking, plant extra flowers, and support native bee habitat.

How can I help wild bees at home? Plant native flowers with long bloom seasons, leave bare soil and hollow stems for nesting, and cut back on pesticides.