South London Beers: Reboot - Last Thursday of the Month at The Prince Regent, Herne Hill, SE24

What is the current split between wild bee colonies and farmed bees?

No idea.

i.e. if we banned the immoral and perverse practice of bee husbandry tomorrow (presumably leading to the liquidation of the existing bee population) how many bees would we have left?

Neil, changes like this are never going to occur so suddenly. The change you describe would of course be too radical. For starters, consumer demand for honey isn't simply going to go away--it will need to happen more gradually, and is a matter of personal choice.

As far as I know, you could place existing bee colonies evenly spread in the wild and most would survive, but as I say, as the fate of bees is so linked to how we manage the land, bigger changes need to occur in the background. Much of it is simply about a return to better farming practices.