Honey bee colony collapse and disease represent both conservation crises and welfare challenges at an unusual scale — one colony contains tens of thousands of individual animals.
Honey bee welfare sits at a complex intersection of individual and collective welfare — the colony is both a superorganism with emergent properties and a collection of individual animals with potential welfare status. Varroa mite infestation causes direct harm to individual bees through parasitism and disease transmission. Pesticide exposure impairs the navigational ability that bees rely on, causing disorientation and death. The welfare implications of standard beekeeping practices including queen replacement and swarm management deserve much more ethical scrutiny than they currently receive.