From a former beekeeper: "[T]ypically, beekeepers are gloved and netted to avoid stings (nearly every bee who stings will die due to her entrails being pulled from her body attached to her stinger.) Then the hives are opened as quickly as possible and the bees are 'smoked.' Smoke from a smoldering fire carried in a 'smoker' is pumped into the hive and the bees are 'calmed.' In spite of this, the combs are pulled quickly and many bees are crushed in the process. When a bee is hurt, she releases a chemical message that alerts and activates the hive members who proceed to attack the intruder—giving their lives in the process."
Sunday, June 22, 2008
BEES BEES BEES
People often get most hostile over honey. They just can't fathom why anyone would give up honey. What amazes me is that, out of all the other animal products, it seems to be the least pervasive in our food. So you'd think it'd be the last thing on their minds. Instead, it tends to be the last straw for them on the list of things I don't eat. It also tends to be the most difficult for me explain. So I found this following excerpt on a PETA site to explain for me:
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I guess the most common responses I get are "bees aren't animals--they're insects!" to which there is basically no response, or "well I knew a guy who kept bees (chickens/cows/pigs) and he loved them and did not kill them", which may be true, but I doubt is true of larger and more characteristic beekeeping operations. Oh and also "bees make so much honey, they want us to take it". Lol wut. How does that evolutionarily make any sense? I'm sure bees could have something better to do with their time than making such an extreme surplus of honey that they neeeed people to take it off their hands (feelers?)
things i ate with honey today: cereal, bread, tea...
i don't understand your last argument rach. even if they don't produce honey for our use, they still produce an overabundance of it that will never get used. they don't "want" us to take it, but i doubt they notice the loss
besides i think the important here is intent. obviously the beekeepers don't want to kill the bees or they would kill their livelihood. and the entire purpose of the smoking is to calm them so they don't attack, isn't it? i guess i feel that beekeepers would have to love bees
anyway does the individual loss of a bee matter? they have hive minds, the entire purpose of which is to operate with large numbers. the main troubling thing is the recent decline in honey bee population which really has nothing to do with bee exploitation and everything to do with environmental changes
oh also do people get hostile over honey or do they get dismissive? i don't really feel they'd get hostile, but if you have had experiences like that, i'll believe it
people really do get hostile. it really does seem totally outrageous to them, and i'm not sure why, but it really is the last straw kind of deal. it is just TOO MUCH.
I looked into wikipedia to find out the answer to the honey surplus question, and as it turns out, bees, like sheep, etc., have been selectively bred to overproduce a substance which is used by humans. So modern domesticated bees do have spare honey lying around, even if they are obviously none too pleased about giving it up.
Since I am not a bee I can't really gauge the meaning of a loss of one or several bees to a colonial hive, but since I don't have to eat honey and thereby don't have to economically facilitate the killing of any bees, I don't do it.
Perhaps a more philosophical question would be(e)--if bees' reality were more like humans', their language more like humans', their idea of economics more like humans', would they agree to give up some honey, wax, royal jelly, pollen, etc as well as some of their sisters' lives for the protections (e.g. heat, hive frames, sources of food) that humans provide them? I don't know; I'm not a bee.
And also, I don't know that the recent decline in bee populations in this country can be said to have nothing to do with the way beekeeping takes place. Certainly the environment is changing drastically and something is hitting the bees pretty hard, but it is difficult for me to imagine that a wild bee population, which would exist without conforming pressure from artificial selection, would have so little genetic diversity as to be unable to evolve around most difficulties.
http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/716/716663/futurama-20060707013232237.jpg
Always remember to bee polite!
i mean... the beef industry is booming and they kill their product. they just produce more cows. the bee keepers probably don't care whether or not they kill some bees. they can still keep enough bees around to make honey. i just feel like a bee's life is worthwhile and it's not fair to kill any of them. bees are really awesome. i mean check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_learning_and_communication
bees learn stuff!
and i'm sure they notice that their hive has been ripped up.
and srsly... smoke inhalation? that's not nice or healthy or fair. what if every time you saw a bug and were about to kill it, it smoked you out? i don't think you'd like it. i'm going to assume the bees aren't pleased either. and why does it calm them? because they can't breathe and get oxygen? are they calm because they are passing out?
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