Honeybee colonies are collapsing at unprecedented rates, threatening both managed bee welfare and wild bee populations. The causes are complex and the welfare implications of colony collapse extend across the food system.
Bee welfare involves both the welfare of individual bees and the welfare of colonies as complex superorganisms. Varroa mite infestations cause chronic suffering in individual bees - the mites feed on bee tissue and transmit viruses. Neonicotinoid exposure impairs navigation, leaving foraging bees unable to return to the hive - a disorienting and ultimately fatal experience. Commercial pollination transport subjects colonies to repeated stress from movement, unfamiliar environments, and high workloads. Wild bee populations face habitat loss and pesticide exposure that causes population collapse. The welfare case against neonicotinoids and for pollinator-friendly agriculture is also a conservation case.