vegans; what is wrong with eating honey?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

nothing wrong with it
acutely it is One of the most healthiest foods in the world
so eat your honey and the bees will make them more honey for them

I'm actually interested in keeping bees and harvesting honey and beeswax. From what I've read, the conventional practices of beekeeping encourage the use of pesticides and medications, deterioration of the honeybee gene pool, and a lot of energy consumption. That is why I am interested in top bar hives, which give the bees more control, help them protect themselves from parasites and diseases, and allows harvest with less disruption to the hive.
[UPDATE]
@Greg, you say "first of all bees dont eat honey, they produce it to stay warm in the winter."

They stay warm in the winter by *eating* the honey, so this statement makes no sense.

Honey supply depends on how much nectar they can gather and store. Honey demand depends on the severity and length of the winter. Wise and ethical hive management would then involve leaving enough for the bees to use over winter. Conventional beekeepers often harvest as much as they can, then feed the bees sugar if needed, but there are several problems with this. Some top bar beekeepers wait to harvest in the spring, when the bees have started to gather more nectar. Others take small amounts over the course of the growing season. In any case, ethical beekeeping wouldn't look for the maximum harvest but would first look out for the welfare of the bees. Pollination is the other big benefit from beekeeping.

http://biobees.com/

Unfortunately, like factory farmers, many beekeepers take inhumane steps to ensure personal safety and reach production quotas.
It’s not unusual for larger honey producers to cut off the queen bee’s wings so that she can’t leave the colony or to have her artificially inseminated on a bee-sized version of the factory farm "rape rack." When the keeper wants to move a queen to a new colony, she is carried with "bodyguard" bees, all of whom—if they survive transport—will be killed by bees in the new colony.
Large commercial operations may also take all the honey instead of leaving the 60 pounds or so that bees need to get through the winter. They replace the rich honey with a cheap sugar substitute that is not as fortifying. In colder areas, if the keepers consider it too costly to keep the bees alive through the winter, they destroy the hives by pouring gasoline on them and setting them on fire. Also, bees are often killed or have their wings and legs torn off by haphazard handling.
According to the Cook-DuPage Beekeepers Association, humans have been using honey since about 15,000 B.C., but it wasn’t until the 20th century that people turned bees into factory-farmed animals.
Happily, many sweeteners are made without killing bees: Rice syrup, molasses, sorghum, Sucanat, barley malt, maple syrup, cane sugar, and dried fruit or fruit concentrates can replace honey in recipes. Using these will keep your diet bee-free.

Peta

I'm a vegetarian, but I don't eat honey either. Like all meat and dairy, it's factory farmed. Bees are bred specifically for making honey. When the season is over and no more honey can be made, all of the bees are killed and next season new bees are bred. I think it's really wrong because the bees work so hard to keep up with honey demands, and after their hard work they are killed for it.

first of all bees dont eat honey, they produce it to stay warm in the winter. 2nd of all beekeepers need the bees alive so they can produce more honey, they dont even get killed in the process, i know that vegans are concerned about animals but some of them take it too far, some vegans also deprive themselves from drinking common brand juices because they use isinglass which comes from the fish to filter the juice.

oh and besides honey is really healthy, is great for the heart

Honey is the food bees make for themselves, so people who buy honey are basically stealing their food. Kind of like drinking milk is stealing food from calves. :(

Vegan

Bees make honey for themselves -- not us.
And the way in which it's obtained is far from kind.

Vegan.

Honey is made by slaves.

whatever there oh i don't know yeah what?

oh!!

Spiritually speaking you are in the realm of
"idolatry". Let me explain. The vegan is very wise and astute about which foods are the best to eat. When they get ultra nit picky, they are making the "process" of choosing the right , the good food...more important than the diet itself. You will eventually get to the point where air...clean air, of course..and sunlight...certain times of the day, of course...are all that is "allowed".

Let common sense and your own body be your guide. Hope that helps, and I do not mean to be overly critical of anyone..just do not let a " good thing'" become an "evil taskmaster".

I eat honey and I'm vegan.

Or at least I consider myself vegan,
eat what you're comfortable eating and
don't eat what you're not comfortable eating.