The rapid rise in urban apiaries is exceeding the amount of greenery available to feed both honey bees and other pollinators, according to a study from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.
The study, called "Challenging the sustainability of urban beekeeping using evidence from Swiss cities", represents the "first attempt to quantify the sustainability of urban beekeeping", according to its authors.
It found that the number of beehives across 14 Swiss cities has more than tripled in recent years, going from 3,139 in 2012 to 9,370 in 2018.
By the end of this six-year period all cities, including Zurich, Geneva and Basel, were home to an average of around 10 beehives per square kilometre of urban green space, despite the fact that this area only provides enough resources to sustain around seven hives. "We found large increases in hives numbers across all cities from an average 6.48 hives per square kilometre (3139 hives in total) in 2012 to an average 10.14 hives per square kilometre (9370 in total) in 2018 and observed that available resources are insufficient to maintain present densities of beehives, which currently are unsustainable," the research paper stated.
The study tracks beehives in 14 Swiss cities
As the increase in urban beehives will likely continue to outpace the creation of new green spaces, the report argues the problem is only set to get worse.
This will have a detrimental effect not just on the g...