Why managed honeybees alone can’t sustain optimal fruit production

It is widely known that honeybees are essential pollinators, however, research from National University of Río Negro Professor, Lucas A. Garibaldi, has revealed that farms which rely solely on honeybees for their pollination efforts are missing out on higher yields and better-quality fruits.

Garibaldi’s paper, ‘Wild Pollinators Enhance Fruit Set of Crops Regardless of Honey Bee Abundance’, highlights the importance of wild bees, including mason bees and bumblebees, in boosting fruit production particularly in crops like strawberries, apples, and almonds.

The study, published in 2013, builds on plant-pollinator interaction data from the 1800s and 1970s, reviewing similar data to track how plants and pollinators are behaving up over 100 years later. More than 40 worldwide crops were studied, across 600 fields in all continents, except Antarctica.

Here, our Pollination Specialist Robin Wilson Robert, breaks down what the study found and why it matters for the future of farming.

• According to the study, farms with multiple bee species saw up to 30% higher yields than those using only honeybees
• Bumblebees and mason bees were especially effective at pollinating strawberries and apples, leading to larger, more uniform fruits
• Almond orchards, which depend heavily on honeybees, still benefited from additional wild pollinators, improving nut set and quality.

Why wild bees outperform honeybees
The study also found that wild bees have better pollination techniques. Bumblebees ‘buzz pollinate’ (vibrating flowers to release pollen), which honeybees can’t do. This is a crucial method for the pollination of tomatoes, blueberries, and eggplants.

Wild bees are also more efficient at foraging; they often visit more flowers per minute than other species and are active in cooler weather, extending their pollination time.

Unlike honeybees, which face colony collapse disorder (CCD), many wild bees are solitary, which decreases their hive collapse risk and makes them less vulnerable to mass die-offs.

The problem with over-reliance on honeybees
Dependence on one bee species can be expensive and therefore unsustainable. For example, large almond farms in California truck in millions of honeybee hives each year, incurring cost and contributing to transport volumes.

If honeybees are struggling to pollinate, whether that be due to disease, pesticides or climate stress, it can be beneficial to not be solely reliant on them. If farms rely on one species and pollination fails, the entire crop could fail too.

Honeybees have a lower genetic diversity, whereas wild bees can help to cross-pollinate plants more effectively, leading to healthier, more resilient fruit crops.

What this means to the growers
While it’s essential for growers and fruit production companies to get the most out of managed honeybee hives, it’s equally important to create farm conditions that support local wild bee populations. By doing both, growers can achieve more effective and resilient pollination.

Several other studies, including those from almond plantations in California, have shown that simply adding more managed bees doesn't always lead to better results. Farms that introduce intercropping with flowering plants like oilseed rape (OSR) and other nectar-rich species help to attract and support wild bees. These farms see better pollination outcomes and improved yields because they create habitats where wild pollinators can thrive alongside
managed ones.

Managed hives and bumblebees certainly play a critical role, especially in intensive systems. But in open-field or semi-protected environments like polytunnels, we can reduce over-reliance on hives by taking a more strategic, data-driven conservation approach. By enhancing on-farm biodiversity through targeted planting, habitat creation, and monitoring,
growers not only support pollinator populations but also unlock real economic value.

This is one of those rare opportunities in agriculture where investing in biodiversity directly improves returns, better pollination, stronger yields, and more resilient ecosystems.

How AgriSound can help

At, one of our partner farms, we observed, through our Polly™ bioacoustic monitoring technology, that a bumblebee hive introduced early in the season provided strong pollination support for about six weeks before the colony naturally declined. However, thanks to the grower’s efforts to create on-farm habitats for wild bees, pollination activity in the polytunnels remained strong, even after the managed hive had weakened.

By planning and implementing targeted conservation measures, the farm was able to attract and sustain wild pollinators throughout the growing season.

This approach not only reduced the overall cost of relying solely on managed pollinators but also enhanced the farm’s long-term sustainability. At AgriSound, we support growers with simple, data-driven practices that make these efforts easy to implement, without adding extra workload. With the right planning, it's possible to boost biodiversity and pollination naturally, while maintaining productivity and profitability.

To learn more about the study, read Garibaldi’s report here, with further research on the impact of inadequate pollination on food quality available here.

If you’re looking to assess the pollinator behaviour on your farm, get in touch with our experts today to find out how real-time data can help you make informed decisions to boost yields.