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Are Bees Pets? A Curious Question Worth Buzzing About
- Helen Charles
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
“Bees as pets?” What a question!
I’ve been invited to speak at an upcoming event celebrating all things fur, fluff and feathered - it is set to be a joyful community festival of pets in all their cuddly glory.
And my topic? Bees.
I have just ten minutes to wow the audience, challenge a few assumptions, and leave people thinking differently about our buzzing friends. So let’s start where all good pet conversations begin… with my dogs.
Meet My Fur Children
I have two Australian Bulldogs, Gus and Tess. They come with us to most places, greet me like I’ve been gone for years (even if it’s only been ten minutes), and provide endless unconditional love, laughter, and companionship. I adore them - truly.
And I also adore my bees.
But not in quite the same way.
So… Are Bees Pets?
My short answer is an unequivocal NO.
A pet is generally defined as an animal kept in the home for pleasure or companionship, rather than for work or food. By that definition, bees simply don’t fit. If anything, honey bees sit much closer to livestock - alongside cows, chickens, sheep, and pigs - than they do to cats or dogs.
When most people talk about bees, they’re really talking about honey bees (Apis mellifera): our superstar, superorganism pollinators that live in hives, make honey, and help produce so many of the foods we love.
Like all livestock - and yes, like pets too - bees require careful management. Beehives need regular inspections. Colonies naturally want to grow, thrive, and reproduce. At some point, that means swarming, when the old queen leaves with around half the hive to start a new colony.
Keeping bees isn’t a spur of the moment decision. It requires time, responsibility, respect, and a lifetime of learning.
The Really Good News: You Don’t Need to Keep Bees to Help Them
Here’s where the story gets even more exciting....
In Australia, we’re home to over 2,000 species of native bees. Not all bees are yellow and black honey-makers. Our native bees come in an astonishing range of colours - metallic, iridescent green and blue to black, yellow, red, and orange - and most don’t live in large colonies at all.
Many are solitary bees. Each female is essentially a single mum, building her nest in the ground, a hollow I a tree, or a plant stem. These bees are truly wild - and we don’t “own” or ‘keep” them.
But we can support them.
By planting diverse, native, pollinator-friendly plants in our gardens, schools, and parks, we create habitat and food sources that invite these wild bees to thrive. And honestly? There are few things more delightful than spotting a wild bee visiting your flowers.
One of my favourites is the blue-banded bee - slightly smaller than a honey bee, with electric blue stripes across its abdomen. I like to call them the supermodel rockstars of the bee world.
Companionship Comes in Many Forms
My dogs give me companionship, pleasure, and entertainment. Bees give me those things too - but in a very different way.
Do my bees know me? Possibly. Research suggests bees can recognise human faces. So yes, my bees might well know who I am - but I’m not convinced the affection is mutual, especially when I’m opening the hive and removing their frames of honey!
And one of my favourite questions: “Do you name your bees?”
Considering a healthy hive can have up to 60,000 bees, the answer is a firm no.
That said, humans love to anthropomorphise bees - turning them into human-like characters. The Bee Movie is a classic example. Barry B. Benson lives a very human life outside the hive, rebelling against his predetermined honey-making career.
It’s wildly inaccurate (for starters, Barry is a male worker bee - when all real worker bees are all female), but it does something important: it helps children connect emotionally with bees and understand what’s at stake if we don’t care for nature.
And that connection matters!
Final Verdict: Bees Aren’t Pets… But They’re Something Special
So, are bees pets?
Still no.
But if a pet is something we feel affection for… If companionship can come from observing, learning, and sharing space with another species… If joy can come from watching wild creatures live their lives alongside us…
Then bees are pretty hard to beat.
You don’t need to cuddle them.
You don’t need to own them.
You just need to care.
And when we care for bees, we care for the ecosystems and the future we all depend on.
Pets in the Park 2026
Pets in the Park 2026 will take place on Sunday 22 March, from 11 am to 3 pm at Central Park, Malvern East.
A fantastic day for pets and pet lovers is planned, including:
expert presentations and demonstrations
vet Q&As
pet competitions
stalls and food vendors
free children’s activities plus more.
Come along and say hello!
Want to ask more questions?
If this kind of ecological storytelling fascinates you, I run workshops and incursions on:
Bees
Looking after nature
The food web
Biodiversity
Pollinators
Sustainability
and the incredible interconnectedness of our natural world
I’d love to share this wonder with your school, community group or organisation.
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