The Honey Trap: How the Good Intentions of Urban Beekeepers Risk Ecological Disaster

by Dana Church

Exposing the misguided assumptions behind an altruistic trend



The last decade has seen an explosion of urban beekeeping in the US, Canada, and Europe, a well-intentioned response to perceived threats to the global honey bee population. Many thousands of people have taken up this seemingly environmentally friendly hobby, tending backyard and rooftop hives (or paying a company to do so) and encouraging honey bees to make honey and pollinate flowers. What could be wrong with that?



Quite a lot, in fact. In The Honey Trap, scientist and author Dana Church demonstrates that despite reports to the contrary, honey bees are nowhere near extinction. Rather, their nurturing by urban beekeepers is having far-reaching and potentially devastating consequences for the 19,999 other species of bees on the planet, with knock-on effects for plants, both cultivated and wild, and our ecosystems more generally.



With engaging storytelling and a wealth of knowledge about bees and their ways, Church unravels the complexities of human interactions with our winged friends and demonstrates how dangerously selfish our thinking can be. It's a wake-up call for humanity to embrace sustainable practices and protect these vital pollinators before it's too late.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

200 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2024

Reviews

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dana Church is a science writer with a PhD in animal cognition. In her 2024 book The Honey Trap, she writes about the dynamic interplay between the many species of bees and other pollinators and humans, and how current practices intended to help (namely, urban beekeeping) may actually be harming the ecosystem.

Church first takes a historical look at how humans have cultivated bees for thousands of years for their honey, then shifted their cultivation strategies over the last few hundred years as the importance of bees as pollinators was better recognized. In the final section of the book, she finally presents her thesis: that urban beekeeping, which has become a trendy environmental cause in the last decade, has a greater net harm than net benefit. She includes in the appendix a short satirical Medium article written by Zach Portman, How I'm helping to save the birds by keeping chickens, which essentially makes the same point but much more concisely. That being said, while Church spent most of this book building up to this point by laying a lot of groundwork, I did find said groundwork interesting and informative.

Further reading: ecology
Return to the Sky: The Surprising Story of How One Woman and Seven Eaglets Helped Restore the Bald Eagle by Tina Morris | my review
Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration by Rebecca Heisman
Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb | my review

My statistics:
Book 63 for 2025
Book 1989 cumulatively

[Rachel]

Are you a victim of beewashing? If you read this book, you’ll discover that you likely are and you don’t even know it! Long story short, you’re actually hurting bees when you take up backyard beekeeping so don’t do it.
I’ve actually never been interested in beekeeping as it is an exploitative practice. Bees do not exist for humans beings to use. Their honey is made for themselves and their children. I wanted to listen to this book because I often discuss with people why I do not eat animals or their secretions (including honey, of course) and I’m always looking for information about bees to add to the discussion.
As I was listening to the audiobook I could feel how deeply connected the author feels to bees and her great desire to share her knowledge to help them. I enjoyed learning about bees as sentient beings and appreciated hearing about the author’s experiences with bees. The audiobook narrator has a soothing, kind voice that brought me back to my grade school days of loving to learn new things.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGallery for letting me listen!

[G Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a classic "if you are interested in the subject matter, read it." I can easily imagine for those more deeply interested in the subject matter, it might earn a fourth star, but for a casual outsider with no particular knowledge of the subject beyond a sincere curiosity like myself, this was merely an okay read.

The information is interesting and some of the ending chapters in particular that speak to the specific problems addressed in the title of the book are certainly the highlight, as is the republished essay of a colleague. I can also honestly say that I am somewhat interested in checking out some of the books the author recommends throughout as they seem like something closer to what I would be more interested in learning about bees. Still, if my assertion that "this is the kind of book you should read if you are interested in the subject matter" is true, than the opposite assertion "this is the kind of book you shouldn't read if you are not interested in the subject matter" must also be true.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strongly recommend this book for reading by members of Horticultural Societies, Master Gardeners, and home gardeners. It's an eye opener !

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an eye-opening book that counters the ideas that bee colony collapse is sign of the apocalypse and that more bees = a better future. Beekeepers apparently are used to the loss or collapse of their hives and typically deal with it by splitting an existing colony to help repopulate a lost one. And while bees are critical to our food supply, it is wild bees that need to be protected. The author makes the case that urban and backyard bee farming is not much different or removed from large enterprises that bring bee hives to farm around the continent, but that the benefits have not been proven to help with harvest yields. She also likens bee farming to raising livestock in pens: dangers of infections spreading wildly. To add meat to this bone, there is a lot of information about different species of bees: Their coloring, their habitats, whether or not they sting or live solo. Lots of scientific names used throughout. Honestly I zoned out at times when it was mostly scientific details, despite the excellent narration. My favorite was a description of baby squash bees (not their scientific name!) that are cradled in squash blossoms at night. I would have enjoyed even more anecdotes like this.
Bottom line, I learned a lot about bees, some of which I will retain, and enough to stop thinking about raising bees for the environment and other “bee-washing” notions.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @HighBridgeAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook for review purposes. Publication date: Jan. 28, 2025

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew a little bit, going in, about the way “save the bees” had become “ruin native bee populations” thanks to backyard beekeepers exploding in popularity, but I had no idea the extent, nor, truly, how complex the issue is. This was a very easy read, with Church laying out the facts with an even and urgent tone. Her descriptions of the bee behaviours was quite enthralling; never mind how complex the issue is, the bees themselves are extremely complex!

She also gets into some of the history of bees in different cultures, which was super interesting.

A very good book for anyone wanting more knowledge about bees, about the environment, and about the ways “save the bees” has been co-opted by turnkey beekeeping companies preying on people just trying to do their bit to help the environment.

[David Erkale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this very book, nothing could've convinced me that honeybees were causing problems. Now I have some background information about the damages of urban beekeeping, as well as products being sold for bees that don't do any good. For anybody wanting the truth, this book has it!
It also mentions another title you should check out that I've read and learned a good deal from. It's What a Bee Knows, and you can click below to view it.
What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories, and Personalities of Bees

[AshleyYvonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most important scientific read for me for 2026 as I head into my first honey bee workshop with intentions to learn and not necessarily start a hive. I'll be renewing and focussing serious efforts on celebrating and supporting native and wild bees as I head into my garden for the mere second year in a row. Time to start doing more supporting biodiversity - I had no idea how much wild bees suffer due to introduced (and non-threatened!) honeybees and how this can be mitigated with mindful practices of planting native species that have evolved alongside our wild theatre.

I love honey. And I love wild honey bees more.

[The Michelleing Of Monte Cassino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book dispelling the modern social myths that bees are in need of saving. The books breaks down in simple terms how urban beekeeping, while well meaning, aids in the collapse of the diversity of native pollinators around the world.

Honeybees are not in danger and should not be treated as such.

The thesis statement, full of biting wit really stuck with me.
“Keeping honeybees to save the bees is like keeping chickens to save the birds.”

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

The point of the book is good, and the sarcastic chicken example at the end was amusing, but this shouldn't be a book. There was nowhere near enough content to fill a book, so the author spent the vast majority of the time giving random facts about unrelated bees. The actual reasons against urban beekeeping were also repeated—most of them brought up at least three times, even the satirical chicken example.

[Hari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a victim of beewashing. I don't even know that we have 20k bee species.

But at least keeping bees helps me to look more closely at the world of insects and plants, which I didn't care about at all before.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Honey Trap – How the Good Intentions of Urban Beekeepers Risk Ecological Disaster, Dana Church, 2024, 200pp
The author knows her subject, is passionate about it, and also writes very well. She has a PhD in animal cognition and studied bees at York U.
Urban beekeeping in North America took off after news circulated about honeybees in trouble due to colony collapse disorder – people thought they could help save the bees by beekeeping either themselves or paying others to do so. The trouble is that native bees are in more trouble than honeybees and competition from honeybees is one of their problems, especially in cities where pesticides are less of a problem than in agricultural areas, and where honeybees have become abundant due to beekeeping. But this book contains much more – including the history of harvesting honey from both bumblebees and honeybees, the development of the modern industry of trucking bees long distances for pollination services and the negative consequences of modern breeding and shipping of bumblebees and honeybees around the world. Native bees in many parts of the world have been decimated by diseases spread by imported bees. Surprisingly pollination quality sometimes goes down when honeybees are brought in for pollination because they don’t pollinate some plants as well as the local native bees, but outcompete them for nectar and pollen because of their numbers. Even bee hotels may not be a net benefit to our native bees because too high a density can cause disease spread. Raspberry canes, patches of bare soil, are 2 of the best things to provide native bees a place to nest and to overwinter. A highlight is the satirical essay by Zach Portman, How I'm helping to save the birds by keeping chickens.