Managed honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies can forage in numbers no wild bee population can match — a single hive fields tens of thousands of workers. When too many hives are packed into a small area, they can exhaust the local nectar and pollen supply before wild bumblebees and solitary bees get a turn, and shared flowers can become a route for pathogens to spill from managed to wild populations.
This lab renders a wildflower meadow with a managed apiary at one edge. Amber honey bees commute out from the hives and back; violet bumblebees and small green solitary bees forage independently across the whole meadow. Flowers turn grey once their nectar is exhausted, then slowly rebloom.
Field studies across Europe have repeatedly found that wild bee visitation rates and foraging success drop measurably near high-density apiaries, especially where floral resources are limited — while honey production itself stays largely unaffected because managed colonies can simply forage farther afield.
A wildflower meadow with a managed apiary at one edge — dial up honey bee hive density and watch amber honey bees crowd shared flowers while violet bumblebees and green solitary bees struggle to forage.
Honey bee colonies field far more foragers than any wild bee population, so raising hive density or foraging range inside a fixed floral budget depletes nectar faster than flowers can regrow, cutting into wild pollinators' foraging success and, over time, their simulated population.
Set hive density, floral abundance, foraging range and season, then toggle disease spillover to see pathogen-contaminated flowers (shown in red) infect wild bees that visit them afterward. Watch the visit-rate stats and population bar respond in real time.
Research apiaries have found wild bee visitation dropping within a few hundred metres of dense honey bee colonies, particularly in nectar-poor seasons — one reason conservation guidance now recommends siting apiaries away from sensitive wild pollinator habitat.