In the past few years, backyard beekeeping has experienced a surge of interest with a lot of people starting to keep their own beehives.
Obviously, we’re pretty passionate about encouraging people to join this hobby that we love so much.
However, we also respect the fact that backyard beekeeping is not for everyone.
Not to worry though if you aren’t planning to take care of your own beehives. There are still plenty of ways you can help honey bees without being a beekeeper.
Continue on to see our 10 (+1) ways you can help honey bees no matter what situation you find yourself in.
More...
Use Pesticides At The Correct Time
You’ve likely heard that you shouldn’t use pesticides on your lawn because it’s bad for the bees. It’s true that pesticides are a big contributor of hygiene problems in beehives and can certainly kill the bees.
However, we also believe in that you should enjoy your home, garden, and lawn that you’ve so worked hard to develop.
This includes getting rid of annoying pests and bugs that frequently infiltrate your beautifully landscaped yard. It’s understandable to want to get rid of them.
As a nice middle ground, we encourage people to be smart about the timing of their pesticide use. With many pesticides, you can simply spray around or after dusk.
This gives the pesticide time to sink into the plant leaves well enough that it won’t be nearly as detrimental to the bees by the time they come out in the morning.
Plant a Bee-Friendly Garden
This is a pretty common recommendation, but it’s true that planting a bee-friendly garden is one of the easiest ways you can help honey bees without being a beekeeper.
By planting a bee-friendly garden, you’re providing the bees with more flowers to forage from. It also has the added benefit of helping improve the visual appeal of your property.
You can get seeds or starters for bee-friendly plants in many places. We recommend using this seed pack as a good, budget-friendly option.
Contact A Local Beekeeper To Remove Honey Bee Swarms
When you see a massing swarm of honey bees, most people want to panic.
If this feels familiar, our simple recommendation is don’t 🙂
When honey bees are swarming, they are at their most docile state as they search for a new home.
Instead of panicking or even worse, spraying the bees, we strongly recommend you contact a local beekeeper to come and safely remove the bees. Beekeepers are well-equipped to handle this.
If you’re reporting a honey bee swarm in Utah, Salt Lake, or Juab counties, please visit our Honey Bee Swarm Removal page to send us the details and we’ll come get the bees out of your hair.
Adopt A Beehive
One of the best and easiest ways to help honey bees without being a beekeeper is to adopt a beehive.
The basic idea is that you make a small contribution to a beekeeper offering this type of program. This contribution (typically) provides for the needs of the beehive for 1 year.
In exchange for this contribution, beekeepers typically provide varying amounts of honey from your adopted beehive, an adoption certificate, and a few update letters as a small thank you.
Our own Adopt-A-Hive program recently underwent a major overhaul from top to bottom and is a great option if you want to help honey bees in this way.
If so, click below to begin the simple process of adopting your very own beehive!
Don’t Disturb Beehives & Report Any Disturbances You Notice
In the past couple years, there has been a disturbing increase in beehive thefts and vandalizations. This is a sad situation especially since the world is already in desperate need of healthy honey bees.
To help with this, the first (easy) step is for you to ensure you aren’t causing disturbances to beehives you see or happen to be near. Give them a clear berth and let the bees do their thing.
The second thing you should do is report any beehive vandalizations, thefts, or disturbances you see to the authorities.
Simply reporting these problems can help greatly reduce the frequency with which they occur or (ideally) eliminate them altogether.
Support Small & Local Beekeepers
An easy way to help honey bees is to buy your honey, beeswax, and other honey-bee related products from local beekeepers or small beekeeping businesses.
Note: if you’re getting into backyard beekeeping, consider buying your bee packages and beekeeping supplies locally as well.
Successfully managing beehives can be a big challenge. Backyard beekeepers always appreciate the support of their local friends and neighbors as it allows them to continue doing their part to help the planet.
So the next time you consider purchasing something made by or for honey bees, consider buying directly from a small or local beekeeping company instead of buying on Amazon.
Provide a Safe Watering Place (AKA Bee Bath)
Honey bees are just like every other animal in that they need access to fresh water in order to survive. This is especially true during the hot summer months when the bees are busy foraging nectar for the hive.
An easy way you can help honey bees without being a beekeeper is to provide a place where they can safely land and get the water they need. Such a place is often called a bee bath.
Bee baths are great because they not only help the bees, but they can also spruce the visual appeal of your property without much investment required.
1 Million Women has a good set of DIY instructions for how to create a bee bath in your yard if you’re interested in this route.
Plant a Bee-Friendly Tree
Along the same vein as planting a bee-friendly garden, you can also plant bee-friendly trees.
Planting and maintaining bee-friendly trees provides far more foraging opportunities for bee colonies than individual flowering plants do.
The Arbor Day Foundation has compiled a great list of trees that are great to plant for bees and other pollinators.
If you like this idea, but aren’t sure how to plant a tree in your yard, here’s a short video to help you learn how: