Colony collapse disorder and ongoing bee population pressures have significant welfare implications for individual bees and managed colony health.
The welfare of honey bees raises genuinely challenging questions about how to think about welfare at the colony level. Individual worker bees live only 4-6 weeks, but the colony as a social unit persists and has interests in its own survival and flourishing. Colony collapse disorder, Varroa mite infestation, and pesticide exposure cause suffering at multiple levels: individual bees experiencing disease, parasitism, and toxicity, and the colony level disruption of the complex social organisation on which all bees depend. Commercial pollination operations transport millions of hives under stressful conditions annually, prioritising crop pollination service over colony welfare. Maintaining colony health through integrated pest management, minimal chemical intervention, and appropriate siting represents the welfare-positive approach to managed bee keeping.