Honey bee colony collapse disorder and related stressors raise welfare concerns at the scale of trillions of individual bees while also threatening global food security.
Varroa mites feeding on bee larvae and adults cause significant harm to individual bees — the mites pierce the abdominal cuticle and feed on fat bodies, causing immune suppression and viral load increase. Queens subjected to artificial insemination are often chilled, constrained, and damaged in the process. Colony transport on trucks exposes billions of bees to temperature extremes, vibration, and oxygen depletion. The welfare of individual bees within industrial beekeeping deserves consideration alongside ecosystem services.