Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University revealed that honeybees push wild pollinators away from flowers, raising conservation concerns as registered UK beekeepers more than doubled from 19,000 in 2010 to 47,000 in 2025 according to the National Bee Unit.
Cambridgeshire Field Study Records 300 Pollinator Interactions
During these observations, honeybees won the majority of recorded encounters on both plant species. Other flower visitors actively avoided honeybees in 28.4% of interactions on brambles and 35.6% on ivy. Fewer wild pollinators were recorded in areas featuring a higher concentration of honeybees.
Victoria Buckle Details Direct Aggression and Managed Hive Growth
While bumblebees were also observed displacing other pollinators, researchers identified that movement as a reflection of less coordinated flights in confined spaces rather than hostile intent.
That’s important because, of course, it means that the wild pollinators are facing a challenge from both those types of competition from honeybees.
Victoria Buckle, lead author of the study and a PhD researcher at Anglia Ruskin University
National Bee Unit records show registered beekeepers climbed from 19,000 in 2010 to 47,000 in 2025. There are growing concerns that this growth in managed honeybees is harming other, wild, pollinators by increasing competition for food and passing on diseases, especially in areas where there are fewer flowers or an especially high density of hives.
Ivy Bee Resistance and Temperature Pressures in the UK
Not all wild species yield to honeybee dominance. The only pollinator able to hold its own against honeybees was the ivy bee, which was seen displacing and chasing honeybees.
Furthermore, environmental conditions heavily influence competitive frequency. Higher temperatures caused competitive interactions to become more frequent, likely because nectar was drying up and plants were going into heat stress. Protecting pollinators means making sure wild bees and other insects have enough flowers to feed on, even as managed honeybee populations grow.
The aim of our study was not to discourage beekeeping, but to better understand how competition happens between wild and managed pollinator species with the aim of helping to conserve our wild pollinators, which play such an important ecological role.
Victoria Buckle, lead author of the study and a PhD researcher at Anglia Ruskin University
