So do bees get killed or hurt when we get their honey or not?!
So do bees get killed or hurt when we get their honey or not?
Answers:
YES!
The bees are smoked, this makes them gorge on honey, which makes them lethargic & less responsive. They do this so that the bee keeper does not get stung. Whilst they are less responsive many get crushed in accessing the honey - through being crushed by frames or stepped on. The honey is also extracted using a wooden tool and bees are crushed by this as well.
A lot of bees are killed through transport. Many die waiting to be collected.
Honey bees also threaten the diversity of natural species of bees, honey-eating birds and other creatures.
Also, unlike stated above, more than just the surplus honey is taken. The bees are fed on glucose for the winter, if they are kept alive at all. 10 to 20 percent of colonies are lost over the winter, some accidently, some are killed because it is cheaper to get new bees than to feed them for that unproductive time.
Although a few bee keepers may try to not harm their bees, the general honey from your supermarket probably involved the death of some bees. Reseach the individual brand, email or call them, to find out about their practices.
Source(s):
http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm...
no, bees are not injured when honey is removed from the hive. the common method is to smoke the hive, the smoke both drives the bees away and makes them sluggish, less likely to sting. the honey comb is then removed, and the bees can return and start all over again.
They make lots of honey to eat for the winter, more than they need to survive. When a beekeeper takes out the honey filled parts of the hive no bees are hurt.
It is not like milking a cow. The honey is already outside the insects.
I don't think so. People raise bees just to harvest the honey. They scrape the combs when they're full, and the bees make more honey and fill them again. I don't think a bee lives very long anyway, and they are constantly reproducing.
A few do, but the vast majority are just fine...If the beekeeper killed his bees, he would have no more honey.
No they are ok. They just make more. They use it as food for themselves and the new bees.
No they don't they do get smoked out though
Daniel S Is this your story?
※※※ http://www.osoq.com/funstuff/extra/extra...
nothing happens to the bee they just keep making more
If you click on the link below there is a good article about bees getting harmed. And here is a quote from the page about how there is an alternative to harming the bees.
"A Natural Alternative
Fortunately, some far-sighted growers are opting out of this mad and ultimately unworkable
system. Two hundred miles northwest of San Francisco is Capay Valley, a semi-wild and
highly diversified farming region that is home to Full Belly Farm. In a former life, Full Belly grew
almonds exclusively.
Today, on 200 acres of organic orchards, pastures and farm fields, it raises asparagus, carrots,
peaches, and other fruits and vegetables as well as cut flowers. Full Belly supplies farmers'
markets, restaurants and 600 members of its Community Supported Agriculture operation.
Full Belly is at the forefront of the "farmscaping" movement, which incorporates ground covers,
plant strips and hedgerows of native plants carefully selected to attract a host of insects. Organic for more than 20 years, Full Belly is also self-pollinating.
"Our goal is to grow beneficial insects in addition to our crops," explains one of Full Belly's
founders, Paul Muller, who points to a tractor-width strip of waist-high mustard plants, now
glowing vibrant yellow, that separates a strawberry field from the stubble of last fall's broccoli.
"We use a variety of plants to help reduce our pest-control costs. Some plants?rosemary,
lavender, redbud and clover, among others?dish out a year-long feast of pollen and nectar
sources for all kinds of insects, including honeybees."
For five years, biologists at the University of California, Davis, studied the insects that thrive at
Full Belly, identifying, counting and tagging them to monitor their habits and numbers. More than
30 different wild pollinators - certain species of bees, flies, moths, butterflies and beetles - thrive
in its chemical-free watermelon fields?enough to service not only the watermelons but also the
entire farm.
Could Full Belly's approach be applied to California's immense almond farms? "We definitely
need a back-up plan for pollination," explains Claire Kremen, PhD, a professor of evolutionary
biology at Princeton University who headed the research at Full Belly. "At least seven wild bee
species will visit almonds during the cold winter months. But to attract them, you need native
habitat." On organic farms surrounded by wild areas, Kremen and her fellow researchers
regularly find as many as 50 native pollinators.
Back to the Future
Bayer is hopeful, too - farmers have to be. But he worries that the honeybee shortage will first
have to get worse before enough people realize that the current system is unsustainable. "I see
honeybees as the canary in the agricultural mine shaft, and right now, the canary is very sick," he says. "My hope is that the coming crisis will encourage the government and the rest of the
agricultural community to get behind more research into the benefits of organic practices and into better bee breeding. Both will help us take better care of our crops and the bees that pollinate
them."
In the meantime, Bayer is planning to make changes on his own farm. "I'm thinking hard about
my future," he says. "I could double the number of colonies I manage to take advantage of
projected growth in the demand for almonds and to cover the escalating costs of insurance, fuel
and time."
That's the sky's-the-limit trajectory the almond industry seems to be taking, but Bayer is reluctant to follow the crowd. "The other possibility is to move toward a smaller, organic and diversified system like the one my grandfather used?even using chickens to eat the insect pests."
For now, Bayer's almond orchard is a work in progress. He encourages native wildflowers to
carpet the orchard to both fertilize the soil and provide pollen and nectar. "Our future depends on
our willingness to listen to Nature's subtle directions," he says. "And Nature is speaking to us right now."
no, they are not hurt. The honey is gathered from their honeycombs, not from the actual bee.
beekeepers try not to injure or harm the bees. honey comes in combs which is taken out of the hive
we have bees and no, the bees are not harmed. the smoke is like the anestetic given to humans.... it just tranquilises them.
the honey filled racks are removed, and new ones are replaced so that the honey can be extracted. no bees are crushed, hurt or killed in this method.
This is the one issue that I stumble on. I'm a strict vegetarian as I avoid meat, fish, eggs and milk but I still have honey as I never thought that the bees were harmed in anyway when the honey is removed - after all bees automatically make honey! I'll have to go and do some research on it now.
No, the beekeeper is very careful in harvesting the honey crop. Dead or injuried bees will not make more honey in the future.
I suppose that would completely depend on what source you get them from. Bees would make the honey whether or not we ate it, so I'd say if it was all done humanely, then I think it's fine. But I'm just a vegetarian, not a vegan - I had a friend who was a vegan and he wouldn't touch honey.