We have a few hives and honestly it's just fun watching those guys work. Every single bee has a very small role, but in unison the operation that these dudes run is absolutely amazing. And spotting the queen is fun every time.

It's also amazing how different "races" of bees act completely different. We have a few hives with very calm bees, they never sting - I can operate on these hives with no protection. We also have hives with very aggressive bees who start stinging on even the slightest disturbance. They also differ in the way they collect nectar - the calm bees are a bit lazier and take their time, building up their honeycombs over time, whereas the aggressive ones send out a massive fleet of bees to collect absolutely everything there is out there early in spring. The aggressive ones also like to attack the calmer ones and steal their honey. Assholes.

Worse, some people wear their lack of caring as a badge of pride. See 'rolling coal'.

Apathy is the greatest evil.

One most people don't care about.

Active malice is worse.

My point is that it isn't. Apathy allows malice to exist unchecked. Apathy is the enabler.

I've had urges to start one, but we only have a normal-sized back yard and two dogs, and I don't think that would mix too well. I already know one of them will try to eat bees when given the chance and I don't want them to get stung.

Is there a way to help without actually starting your own bee colony?

If you live in a place that already has a good number of bees around: have pollinating plants, trees, bushes in your yard, possibly a (small) stream of water; know how to spot a swarm and have a bee-friend that you can call to collect the swarms.

Depending on where you live, seeding your lawn with white clover is a low-cost and low-maintenance way to provide food for local bees.

grow plants pollinators like

https://thehoneybeeconservancy.org/plant-a-bee-garden/

Leave the dandelions in the lawn for the pollinators. They attract tons of bees, bumblebees and butterflies.

I guess I did good by getting sick for a month right when spring was starting and between that and the rain I didn't bother mowing for awhile and the dandelions took over the front lawn :)

they are also very tasty (you can eat many parts of them), and they will grow again if you leave the root in the ground :)

Bonus: Dandelion wine

Grow locally native pollinator plants if you can, or any flowering plant.

Lots of people care. It is only that big multinationals like Bayer also care: They want to fill the world with pesticides, because it is in their own economic interest.

Those multinationals have concentration of power and influence. The power of the people is way bigger, but it is distributed.

In Europe neonicotinoids were restricted or forbidden. It is a never ending fight.

The war will never end until we manage to create food cheap enough without insects competing for it. This will be hydroponics, electrically creating ATP Adenosine triphosphate or whatever, but until that time comes they will try to exterminate bugs. The already have in a big way.

Please stop generalizing humans and the west like that, you know that's not true because you yourself are aware of it and can be a counter-example.

Simply insert the words 'the majority of' and you're good to go.

It's one thing to get annoyed by waste and consumerism, but "actively maintaining a beehive" seems like a high bar for caring.

“Get annoyed by waste and consumerism” seems like a low bar for caring. The problems will not go away unless the people take mass action.