Image: Australian Museum.

The European honey bee is an introduced species that has thrived in Australia since the first settlers brought it to our shores. In fact, today, there are few urban areas where you won't encounter honey bees in action. 

Did you know honey bees are in direct competition with our native bees for pollen and nectar? And not only that, according to research undertaken by Andrew Hingston from the University of Tasmania, honey bees are also known to have a significant impact on swift parrot conservation.

Andrew recently spoke at our Swift Parrot Awareness Day, detailing how the presence of honey bees can reduce nectar availability during the breeding season of the critically endangered swift parrot. 

According to Andrew, honey bees take nectar from blue gums when they are in flower, which are the swift parrots' main food source. A group of more than 50 honey bees on a flowering mature blue gum can take all of the nectar in one day. Honey bees can also take over tree hollows, meaning less swift parrot habitat (and therefore, less habitat for all hollow-nesting animals).

Recent research demonstrates that honey bees indirectly reduce pollination of native plants by outcompeting and reducing numbers of native pollinators.

These native pollinators are better at pollinating our native plants, whereas honey bees can take nectar without effectively pollinating the plants.

In fact, honey bees might be responsible for an increase in inbreeding of native plants because they tend to move from flower to flower on one plant where native pollinators are more likely to travel from plant to plant.

So if you are managing bee hives, take into consideration the potential impacts on other fauna that may be reliant on your local nectar supply and native species pollination cycles.

Introduced social bees reduce nectar availability during the breeding season of the swift parrot (Lathamus discolor)

Do honeybees exert negative impacts on Australian native bees?

Honey bee introductions displace native bees and decrease pollination of a native wildflower

Using the varroa mite to deal with feral honey bees