Coming back to some research that was shared on Bee-L a couple of weeks ago:

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10568204/

 

A few interesting observations:

 

‘Overall, there were estimated to be between two and three times as many wild colonies as managed worldwide.’

 

‘Based on the mean regional densities in Figure 3 and the estimated area of habitable landmass in each region, we estimate that there are approximately 280 million wild A. mellifera colonies worldwide, which is more than double the number of managed colonies reported by the FAO in 2021 (102 million). This is a tentative estimate based on limited data and should be used with caution. However, the strong indication is that wild A. mellifera colonies outnumber managed colonies in most regions, with the exception of Europe.’

 

‘On a positive note, it also shows that in surviving its challenges the honey bee will be aided by natural selection on wild colonies in many locations.’

 

Further, it is really interesting that in North America, they peg wild colony density at approximately 1.4 col. / sq. km. and managed density at approximately 0.2 col. / sq. km. for a 7X difference between wild and managed colonies on average.


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