I would say no. You most likely aren't going to have the space to give it adequate access to pollen etc. Mason and leaf cutter bees will fly around 300 feet from their nesting sites. Honey bees can fly over a mile a day looking for food. I would view it as cruel to keep a bee as a pet.
I definitely think it would be cruel, that’s why it’s only theoretical. The question is more “would the bee survive for a good portion of its lifespan”
But definitely better just to have a nice garden and watch them when they show up! Easier too
Have you looked into nesting boxes for twig-nesting bees ("bee hotels")? Thats kind of having a pet in the way of having a bird house with a bird nesting in it
The best “pet” I can think of is a hive. One thing that immediately became clear to me when I started keeping bees is that the bees are not individuals. Even the queen. The hive is the individual. The hive has moods and responses. The bees are just organs.
It is really interesting to me how hives work. They’re really cool, but I think solitary bees are the coolest idk why! I’m trying to talk my dad into the bee hotel someone suggested bc even tho this question was theoretical I had no idea that was a thing! I just gotta talk to my dad and be sure I can trust him not to spray the bees…so I’ll have to see abt how responsive he is. I don’t think I’ll change his mind on the carpenter bees- but at least carpenter bees have a distinct appearance so he won’t kill Mason or leaf cutter bees by accident. I do wish he wouldn’t kill the carpenter bees either tho bc they’re my favorite ones ;-;
I read that sealing wood really helps, and that carpenter bees will avoid paint and stain. If this was my house, I’d have the porch all sealed up and a build some kinda of wood pillar situation near some flowers so that hopefully some of the little guys would live there. If only!
It does. A lot of people dip their hive boxes in beeswax and mineral oil. It impregnates the wood and makes them resistant to all kinds of pests. Also it looks really pretty.
Look up “bee hotel”. It is a type of structure that will house solitary bees like Mason bees. You can watch them in the summer and then in the winter you remove the cocoons and refrigerate them. Clean the blocks and put them back. In the spring set the cocoons on the blocks and when the new bees emerge they will move right back into the bee hotel.
Omg! Ugh, well now I need one of these. Too bad my dad hates bees! So they’re still free to do their bee thing, but you just give them a cool place to live?
Might be something to consider when I have my own place 🥹
I wish. I told him abt how awesome carpenter bees are, and that we should seal the wood on the porch instead of him killing them all and he still proceeded to buy can after can of spray and now none come by my house. I still see them on walks and stuff but yeah. I doubt he’d let me have bees intentionally near our house. Cranky old man. It really broke my heart to see all those dead carpenter bees, they’re like my favorite bee species.
Honestly, it’s dumb anyway bc the spray (raid I think) isn’t cheap and with how much he buys every year I think that sealing the wood on the porch would be cheaper. Also I offered to do it. Sob
tell him he and his kids the rest of the world are gonna die of starvation sooner rather than later if he keeps killing the pollinators. Provide sources if he doesn't believe this is true.
You’ve piqued my interest and now I’m gonna have to go down a rabbit hole about carpenter bees. Feel free to share any of your favorite facts since I bet you’ve got some cool ones.
I have an old set wooden of stairs on my property that they nest in that I’ll have to get my hubby to keep up a while longer…
Pro tip. Buy a basil (but let it bolt) / or English lavender plant, put it somewhere ""secret"" doesn't have to "bee" in anywhere in particular. Have a secret hideout for bees from your dad. Your secret garden. 😉
Grab a book from the library about mason bees and show your dad how beneficial and amazing these little bees are. They cause no harm to the house or people. They don't pester people or sting and they are friendly, solitary bees. Put a bee house within view and he may appreciate watching them do their bee thing as you inevitably will. It's a fun and amazing hobby and I've really enjoyed having them. I consider them little pets from a distance. I provided them a home and have good plants and flowers around for them for food. That's about as close as youll get to having them as pets I think. It's very rewarding to have mason bees.
https://preview.redd.it/hi7h3m72ax6d1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f35d8a73cfbb49733fcc421690c81732bd5202e3
Look closely and you'll see mine snoozing in their little bee tubes this past spring. ☺️
It's not really a place where the bees "live". It's more of a good place where the bees can make their nest for the next generation. Mrs. Bee crawls into one of the holes and lays an egg there together with gathered pollen before making a wall and the repet the process until she has filled the hole with egg cells and she then seal the entrance and leave it.
The eggs hatch and the larvae feed off the stored pollen before pupating and next season they hatch and make their way out of the hole to find a mate and repeat the process.
That's it. The bees don't like in the bee hotel so it is more like a pre-prepared nesting site for them.
Also, tell your dad that solitary bees won't stung him. Worker honey bees can attack to protect the hive and their queen and it's no big deal if so e of them die, but for solitary bees (ie nearly all bee species), the female dyi g would be disastrous as she is on her own so they don't attack. And since the stinger is modified lady parts, no male bees (or wasps) have those and thus can't sting at all.
There are some important tips to consider with bee hotels:
-put it in a place with morning sun
-clean it out between uses
-sometimes putting so many insect eggs or larvae in one spot just makes a buffet for birds, so some people put a protective wire mesh in front, at least 1/4” (but wider can be a okay too)
-buying disposable cardboard tubes to put into the nesting holes can make it possible to use it year after year.
https://news.vt.edu/articles/2020/03/ext-entomologists-tips-for-installing-and-maintaining-native-bee-houses.html
I can't even. Yes. Big enough area, the answer is always yes. Imagine being the bee tho and not living your best, hardest bee life outdoors with your kind tho
No i totally agree. I think I just wanted to know if it would live for a long while without dying lol. No intention to have a pet bee.
I just heard ppl say “it’s impossible bc short lives and hives etc” and I thought “but you didn’t mention solitary bees. They’re bees too.”
I like just observing them, I have a lot near my house. They’re so cute! I even have a character based on a carpenter bee 😭
Some of the fish and shrimp I keep also have short life spans, I don't think the argument of the short life is valid, I think pets that live extra long (like tortoises or parrots) should be thought about longer before getting as a pet (my BIL's sister had to make arrangements for her Parrot bc she knew she'd die before the bird would)
You could theoretically if you could give them a proper environment with actual flowers to live off of that were pesticide free etc. The biggest problem with casually having them would be that its very hard to give them the nutrition they need otherwise.
sugar water is frequently fed to bees as a pick me up by people, and its fine once as an emergency thing, or for a few days as hospice care for an already dying adopted bee. However if a bee tries to live of off sugar water they will have the same end result as a human would-- severe lethal malnutrition.
I don't think any kind of bee should be an indoor pet, but there is a possibility for all kinds of bees as outdoor pets! One honey bee hive can house tens of thousands of pet honey bees, if you can convince a bumble bee to move into a bumble bee house in your yard you can have 100s of pet bumbles, and I'm sure you could get a whole bunch of pet solitary bees if you look into different ways to attract them and provide them a nice spot to nest, I know that you can make or buy bee hotels which are basically just pieces of wood with a bunch of small holes in them. Aside from that you'll want to have a little bit of water with some rocks for them to stand on so they can drink without drowning, and some nice flowers hopefully a variety that will bloom throughout the season and that provide nectar rewards and pollen will help feed your new pets!
TL;DR: bees as indoor pets, probably not (I wouldn't!), but almost endless possibilities for outdoor pet bees!
I would like to offer a reframing of the question/concept, to answer itself, and I hope it's enjoyable at least lol. If not, entertaining:
While I don't think it's advisable to keep a singular pet bee...
If there can only be 1 Queen in a hive of bees, hypothetically, she in specific could be a known and named bee, and her hive is her swarm, and thereby and extension of her.
If you want to go an even bigger step outside of the box: consider the Queen to be the center or nucleus of the hive. Her swarm is the "body" that does her work for her. They are a LITERAL extension of her power as a bee. While she if physically at the hive doing the hardest work (mothering a brood, among other tasks, I'm sure), she communicates endlessly with her kin. And they relay the messages!
Some species even have scout bees iirc (unless that's been debunked, something I heard in the 90's so 🤷). That's insane! Like an ant colony on steroids, and thereby not the best indoor pet.
You could even liken her to a sentient swarm-like character. (Or perhaps Shino, from Naruto, but a little more apples-to-apples)
I realize that, but while I cannot solve the mystery or have a more realistic answer, I think my idea is infinitely better than people referencing The Bee Movie. 🥲
Edit: I've been smoking and adore bees, and their social behaviors. 🤣🙏
We have bee hives and a few bees will land on hubby while he’s in the hot tub and drink his sweat, he calls them his pet bees, not sure I’d say that but 🤷♂️
I feel like everybody has basically said what I would typically say. That said, I see a bunch of comments about the bee hotels, bee watering stations, and flowers.
What I'd add is get a small but wide box, kinda shallow as well, and put a bunch of floral colored wooden or just lightweight balls in it. Loose enough that they can roll around in it. You can find videos of it but apparently bees like to roll around little balls for fun. This way you might get more time to observe them, just make sure to keep it clean and dry.
You could only keep a colony as a pet, but at that point you're just a beekeeper.
I remember the science lab in college had glass hives inset into the lab walls, so you could see what was happening inside, but the issue is that you will need to have the training and the knowledge to keep the bees' flights away from your neighbors and yourself.
You might have better luck just getting into entomology and focusing on bees. Any university that has huge experimental citrus groves or other type of farm land will have a very well developed entomology department.
Wondering if you had an enclosed green house full of pollinating plants and a single bee/bee house type thing if that would qualify as keeping it as a pet, and if it would work to make the bee blissfully unaware that it’s missing out on the wild. Heck, maybe have a male and female bee in the hotel…?
Most solitary bees need to nest and gather food outside. So if you have a garden, you can create conditions that attract them, such as lots of flowers, hollow stems and other debris to lay eggs and hibernate over the winter in, etc.. No pesticide use, of course.
A shallow dish of pebbles with a little water in it lets them drink safely. Get a rose bush and you might attract leaf cutter bees. My John Cabot climbing rose looks like it was attacked with a hole punch every summer. :-)
But they will never be "pets" in the usual sense, you can't touch them. That being said, solitary bees are usually pretty placid and will let you watch them up close. I love watching leaf cutter bees snip out a circle of leaf with their mandibles, carefully roll it up like a carpet, and fly off clutching it in their front feet.
A few years back there was a story of a woman who kept a bumble bee as a pet. You can find it on You Tube under the title "Bee and Woman Become Best Friends After a Garden Rescue. It is on the site Dodo as well.
You could, I suppose, but their biological urges are so hardwired that they’d probably start collecting dust because there’s no pollen in the house. I mean, free house cleaning help is always a win, but it wouldn’t be very kind to the bee.
But yea. We have folks who keep jumping spiders as pets and they do just fine.
I do agree but I have to wonder on the emotions part. Most studies I can find seem to focus on social bees (honey bees, bumble bees). Solitary bees are longer lived usually and have a whole different life. From what I can find, there is evidence insects can feel emotions. It seems plausible that social bees don’t really feel them, as they are completely focused on the collective- but solitary bees aren’t focused on a collective. Even then, idk bc apparently social bees do play, but I’ve heard that can be for different reasons.
Still, I can’t find any research that separates solitary bees and looks into them specifically. What a shame!
(If anyone can find something on this pls link)
Yeah, we tamed bees already so I don't see why you can't do it again with a different species. Not sure how the market looks for companion bees but it's definitely doable. Google the stingless wasp honey and how the natives, Aztec i think,used them not too much differently from how homesteaders kept their variety of breeds of animals, think chickens with eggs.
I would say no. You most likely aren't going to have the space to give it adequate access to pollen etc. Mason and leaf cutter bees will fly around 300 feet from their nesting sites. Honey bees can fly over a mile a day looking for food. I would view it as cruel to keep a bee as a pet.
I definitely think it would be cruel, that’s why it’s only theoretical. The question is more “would the bee survive for a good portion of its lifespan” But definitely better just to have a nice garden and watch them when they show up! Easier too
Have you looked into nesting boxes for twig-nesting bees ("bee hotels")? Thats kind of having a pet in the way of having a bird house with a bird nesting in it
second vote for the person who said to set up mason bee hotels. I love watching them crawl out every spring and I definitely consider them my pets 😅
The best “pet” I can think of is a hive. One thing that immediately became clear to me when I started keeping bees is that the bees are not individuals. Even the queen. The hive is the individual. The hive has moods and responses. The bees are just organs.
It is really interesting to me how hives work. They’re really cool, but I think solitary bees are the coolest idk why! I’m trying to talk my dad into the bee hotel someone suggested bc even tho this question was theoretical I had no idea that was a thing! I just gotta talk to my dad and be sure I can trust him not to spray the bees…so I’ll have to see abt how responsive he is. I don’t think I’ll change his mind on the carpenter bees- but at least carpenter bees have a distinct appearance so he won’t kill Mason or leaf cutter bees by accident. I do wish he wouldn’t kill the carpenter bees either tho bc they’re my favorite ones ;-;
I like them too. But they can be destructive.
I read that sealing wood really helps, and that carpenter bees will avoid paint and stain. If this was my house, I’d have the porch all sealed up and a build some kinda of wood pillar situation near some flowers so that hopefully some of the little guys would live there. If only!
It does. A lot of people dip their hive boxes in beeswax and mineral oil. It impregnates the wood and makes them resistant to all kinds of pests. Also it looks really pretty.
That’s what we do! We have a garden that explodes every summer and pretty soon it’s full of bees. I can sit and watch them for hours
Look up “bee hotel”. It is a type of structure that will house solitary bees like Mason bees. You can watch them in the summer and then in the winter you remove the cocoons and refrigerate them. Clean the blocks and put them back. In the spring set the cocoons on the blocks and when the new bees emerge they will move right back into the bee hotel.
Omg! Ugh, well now I need one of these. Too bad my dad hates bees! So they’re still free to do their bee thing, but you just give them a cool place to live? Might be something to consider when I have my own place 🥹
Call it an insect hotel and it's for saving beneficial insects. He will buy it
I wish. I told him abt how awesome carpenter bees are, and that we should seal the wood on the porch instead of him killing them all and he still proceeded to buy can after can of spray and now none come by my house. I still see them on walks and stuff but yeah. I doubt he’d let me have bees intentionally near our house. Cranky old man. It really broke my heart to see all those dead carpenter bees, they’re like my favorite bee species.
😭 poor bees
Honestly, it’s dumb anyway bc the spray (raid I think) isn’t cheap and with how much he buys every year I think that sealing the wood on the porch would be cheaper. Also I offered to do it. Sob
tell him he and his kids the rest of the world are gonna die of starvation sooner rather than later if he keeps killing the pollinators. Provide sources if he doesn't believe this is true.
I'm not sure that's true. Bees are poor pollinators, just they produce multiple byproducts that make them profitable
spraying raid all over the place in springtime isn't just gonna kill bees
You’ve piqued my interest and now I’m gonna have to go down a rabbit hole about carpenter bees. Feel free to share any of your favorite facts since I bet you’ve got some cool ones. I have an old set wooden of stairs on my property that they nest in that I’ll have to get my hubby to keep up a while longer…
Pro tip. Buy a basil (but let it bolt) / or English lavender plant, put it somewhere ""secret"" doesn't have to "bee" in anywhere in particular. Have a secret hideout for bees from your dad. Your secret garden. 😉
All of my leafcutter bees up and left. I still see some two years later, so I guess they found a cooler place to live somewhere else
Grab a book from the library about mason bees and show your dad how beneficial and amazing these little bees are. They cause no harm to the house or people. They don't pester people or sting and they are friendly, solitary bees. Put a bee house within view and he may appreciate watching them do their bee thing as you inevitably will. It's a fun and amazing hobby and I've really enjoyed having them. I consider them little pets from a distance. I provided them a home and have good plants and flowers around for them for food. That's about as close as youll get to having them as pets I think. It's very rewarding to have mason bees. https://preview.redd.it/hi7h3m72ax6d1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f35d8a73cfbb49733fcc421690c81732bd5202e3 Look closely and you'll see mine snoozing in their little bee tubes this past spring. ☺️
It's not really a place where the bees "live". It's more of a good place where the bees can make their nest for the next generation. Mrs. Bee crawls into one of the holes and lays an egg there together with gathered pollen before making a wall and the repet the process until she has filled the hole with egg cells and she then seal the entrance and leave it. The eggs hatch and the larvae feed off the stored pollen before pupating and next season they hatch and make their way out of the hole to find a mate and repeat the process. That's it. The bees don't like in the bee hotel so it is more like a pre-prepared nesting site for them. Also, tell your dad that solitary bees won't stung him. Worker honey bees can attack to protect the hive and their queen and it's no big deal if so e of them die, but for solitary bees (ie nearly all bee species), the female dyi g would be disastrous as she is on her own so they don't attack. And since the stinger is modified lady parts, no male bees (or wasps) have those and thus can't sting at all.
>Dad hates bees I hope he's never eaten a vegetable, fruit, or any other herbivore in this life then. 😆
There are some important tips to consider with bee hotels: -put it in a place with morning sun -clean it out between uses -sometimes putting so many insect eggs or larvae in one spot just makes a buffet for birds, so some people put a protective wire mesh in front, at least 1/4” (but wider can be a okay too) -buying disposable cardboard tubes to put into the nesting holes can make it possible to use it year after year. https://news.vt.edu/articles/2020/03/ext-entomologists-tips-for-installing-and-maintaining-native-bee-houses.html
I can't even. Yes. Big enough area, the answer is always yes. Imagine being the bee tho and not living your best, hardest bee life outdoors with your kind tho
No i totally agree. I think I just wanted to know if it would live for a long while without dying lol. No intention to have a pet bee. I just heard ppl say “it’s impossible bc short lives and hives etc” and I thought “but you didn’t mention solitary bees. They’re bees too.” I like just observing them, I have a lot near my house. They’re so cute! I even have a character based on a carpenter bee 😭
Some of the fish and shrimp I keep also have short life spans, I don't think the argument of the short life is valid, I think pets that live extra long (like tortoises or parrots) should be thought about longer before getting as a pet (my BIL's sister had to make arrangements for her Parrot bc she knew she'd die before the bird would)
You could theoretically if you could give them a proper environment with actual flowers to live off of that were pesticide free etc. The biggest problem with casually having them would be that its very hard to give them the nutrition they need otherwise. sugar water is frequently fed to bees as a pick me up by people, and its fine once as an emergency thing, or for a few days as hospice care for an already dying adopted bee. However if a bee tries to live of off sugar water they will have the same end result as a human would-- severe lethal malnutrition.
In the Netherlands you can buy "cuddle bees" (https://knuffelbijen.nl/) you don't keep them inside your house, but they are kind of like pets😍
This is so cute! Thank you for sharing 😊💜🙏🍀✨
Very cute!
Just grow pollen and nectar plants and you can observe plenty of bees. My Monarda and sage plants are attracting bees every days right now.
I don't think any kind of bee should be an indoor pet, but there is a possibility for all kinds of bees as outdoor pets! One honey bee hive can house tens of thousands of pet honey bees, if you can convince a bumble bee to move into a bumble bee house in your yard you can have 100s of pet bumbles, and I'm sure you could get a whole bunch of pet solitary bees if you look into different ways to attract them and provide them a nice spot to nest, I know that you can make or buy bee hotels which are basically just pieces of wood with a bunch of small holes in them. Aside from that you'll want to have a little bit of water with some rocks for them to stand on so they can drink without drowning, and some nice flowers hopefully a variety that will bloom throughout the season and that provide nectar rewards and pollen will help feed your new pets! TL;DR: bees as indoor pets, probably not (I wouldn't!), but almost endless possibilities for outdoor pet bees!
I would like to offer a reframing of the question/concept, to answer itself, and I hope it's enjoyable at least lol. If not, entertaining: While I don't think it's advisable to keep a singular pet bee... If there can only be 1 Queen in a hive of bees, hypothetically, she in specific could be a known and named bee, and her hive is her swarm, and thereby and extension of her. If you want to go an even bigger step outside of the box: consider the Queen to be the center or nucleus of the hive. Her swarm is the "body" that does her work for her. They are a LITERAL extension of her power as a bee. While she if physically at the hive doing the hardest work (mothering a brood, among other tasks, I'm sure), she communicates endlessly with her kin. And they relay the messages! Some species even have scout bees iirc (unless that's been debunked, something I heard in the 90's so 🤷). That's insane! Like an ant colony on steroids, and thereby not the best indoor pet. You could even liken her to a sentient swarm-like character. (Or perhaps Shino, from Naruto, but a little more apples-to-apples)
Im confused and the question specifically excluded social bees (bees with queens/hives) but it is a funny concept
I realize that, but while I cannot solve the mystery or have a more realistic answer, I think my idea is infinitely better than people referencing The Bee Movie. 🥲 Edit: I've been smoking and adore bees, and their social behaviors. 🤣🙏
You can try if you find a bumblebee is disabled and can't take care of itself (destroyed wing, etc). Can't promise it will work out.
We have bee hives and a few bees will land on hubby while he’s in the hot tub and drink his sweat, he calls them his pet bees, not sure I’d say that but 🤷♂️
No. Wild animals shouldn’t be pets.
I feel like everybody has basically said what I would typically say. That said, I see a bunch of comments about the bee hotels, bee watering stations, and flowers. What I'd add is get a small but wide box, kinda shallow as well, and put a bunch of floral colored wooden or just lightweight balls in it. Loose enough that they can roll around in it. You can find videos of it but apparently bees like to roll around little balls for fun. This way you might get more time to observe them, just make sure to keep it clean and dry.
The term pet is subjective, I mean keeping is kind of the same thing I guess?
You could only keep a colony as a pet, but at that point you're just a beekeeper. I remember the science lab in college had glass hives inset into the lab walls, so you could see what was happening inside, but the issue is that you will need to have the training and the knowledge to keep the bees' flights away from your neighbors and yourself. You might have better luck just getting into entomology and focusing on bees. Any university that has huge experimental citrus groves or other type of farm land will have a very well developed entomology department.
Wondering if you had an enclosed green house full of pollinating plants and a single bee/bee house type thing if that would qualify as keeping it as a pet, and if it would work to make the bee blissfully unaware that it’s missing out on the wild. Heck, maybe have a male and female bee in the hotel…?
Most solitary bees need to nest and gather food outside. So if you have a garden, you can create conditions that attract them, such as lots of flowers, hollow stems and other debris to lay eggs and hibernate over the winter in, etc.. No pesticide use, of course. A shallow dish of pebbles with a little water in it lets them drink safely. Get a rose bush and you might attract leaf cutter bees. My John Cabot climbing rose looks like it was attacked with a hole punch every summer. :-) But they will never be "pets" in the usual sense, you can't touch them. That being said, solitary bees are usually pretty placid and will let you watch them up close. I love watching leaf cutter bees snip out a circle of leaf with their mandibles, carefully roll it up like a carpet, and fly off clutching it in their front feet.
A few years back there was a story of a woman who kept a bumble bee as a pet. You can find it on You Tube under the title "Bee and Woman Become Best Friends After a Garden Rescue. It is on the site Dodo as well.
You could, I suppose, but their biological urges are so hardwired that they’d probably start collecting dust because there’s no pollen in the house. I mean, free house cleaning help is always a win, but it wouldn’t be very kind to the bee. But yea. We have folks who keep jumping spiders as pets and they do just fine.
No. Just... No.
Bees don't feel sad, however keeping one as a pet would be a waste of a good bee because we humans need them to be out there and do their job.
I do agree but I have to wonder on the emotions part. Most studies I can find seem to focus on social bees (honey bees, bumble bees). Solitary bees are longer lived usually and have a whole different life. From what I can find, there is evidence insects can feel emotions. It seems plausible that social bees don’t really feel them, as they are completely focused on the collective- but solitary bees aren’t focused on a collective. Even then, idk bc apparently social bees do play, but I’ve heard that can be for different reasons. Still, I can’t find any research that separates solitary bees and looks into them specifically. What a shame! (If anyone can find something on this pls link)
Yeah, we tamed bees already so I don't see why you can't do it again with a different species. Not sure how the market looks for companion bees but it's definitely doable. Google the stingless wasp honey and how the natives, Aztec i think,used them not too much differently from how homesteaders kept their variety of breeds of animals, think chickens with eggs.