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.

Dana Church is an author with a PhD in animal cognition, and merges her passion for animals with a talent for storytelling to make science accessible for all ages. Her debut book, The Beekeepers: How Humans Changed the World of Bumble Bees was published in 2021 by Scholastic Focus, and explores the intricate relationship between humans and bumble bees. She currently resides in Waterloo.

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