Bees Love Weed – and this Relationship is Helping Save Them

A recent study published in the Environmental Entomology has seen that thousands of bees are using hemp farms as a vital source of nutrition. As mankind has taken over the globe it has resulted in a decrease in the bee populations, but hemp farms could become an important part of their future in the relationship between bees and weed.

Crops of hemp plants are popping up all over the globe due to the benefits available from this plant with the low presence of THC. Researchers from Cornell University monitored the bee presence across 11 hemp farms in the state of New York, USA. 

What they saw was rather exciting – thousands of bees excitedly collecting the pollen from male hemp plants. When they took a closer look they found that 16 different bee species were thriving off of this crop. It would further seem that the taller the plant the better as they support a greater variety of species and attract up to 17 times the amount of bees. 

In the report it was stated by researchers that hemp provides plenty of pollen during a time where the floral landscape is looking more and more barren. Which is why this plant is a promising aspect as cannabis grows in popularity, it’s showing its worth in another sphere!

The relationship between bees and weed may go much further back, as far as 1983. Here a study was conducted and uncovered the fact that bees were collecting copious amounts of pollen from hemp fields at the University of Mississippi. However, this was more of an observation at the time and doesn’t hold the importance that it does now – which is that cannabis may be a refuge of sorts for the bee population. 

A question on many people’s minds is also whether the bees are benefiting from cannabinoids from cannabis. This doesn’t seem likely as bees don’t have an endocannabinoid system for these compounds to interact with. 

It looks like cannabis has yet another reason to stick around – saving the bees. As time goes on, the world is discovering just how important a role this plant can play across the globe.