The nectar and pollen that flowers produce is in fact a limited resource, both in quantity and in time available. Honeybees have the capability of depleting su

The nectar and pollen that flowers produce is in fact a limited resource, both in quantity and in time available. Honeybees have the capability of depleting such resources because they are far more active than they actually need to be, which is one of the reasons we use them for crops with very high densities of flowers, like blueberries. They are efficient and thorough enough to get the job done. There are times of the year (in particular, late summer/fall) where good flowers are especially hard to come by, and so solitary bees can have trouble trying to compete against a hive in the area when they are trying to gather the resources they need to reproduce. Meanwhile a hive also has honey stored so dips in availability during the year matter much less.