Fun fact: honey doesn’t belong to people
real fact: bees produce way more honey than they need so if you don’t take it they will leave the hive and let their surplus of honey rot
Natural fact: domesticated honey bees are the ones that overproduce honey, but wild ones do not. Domesticated bees are not the ones in danger; wild ones are. Don’t be misled by the idea that wild animals need human intervention to survive.
Real fact: Hi I’m a beekeeper wild bees DO overproduce honey, they can survive with the excess but it will be harder for numbers to grow as there will be no space for larvae and eggs.
Also, hives that overproduce honey stop making it. Workers gorge themselves and get fat and lazy, then when winter comes they don’t have enough honey to survive, since they stopped producing months ago.
Yes, this happens in the wild. It’s part of the reason why wild bees are rare in some areas, but there’s also the fact that other animals will raid hives.
Both wild and domesticated honey bees overproduce and that fucks up the entire hive. Domesticated honey bees cannot be released and be expected to survive, they will end up destroying the entire colony if they don’t work, and that’s even if you could get the queen rooted in a hive.
Honey is a natural part of our diet and we can’t just stop producing it.
Source: I kept bees for three years and my hives had over 50 lb excess every year just from 3 hives also fuck you
I stand corrected, but regardless of what bees overproduce, do you seriously think honey is natural part of a human diet? Come on. Honey is an incredibly sugary substance that is not particularly nutrient dense.
You also can’t make the argument that another species is reliant on human intervention to survive; whilst it is true that some species are co-dependent, humans aren’t a part of any such system.
Clearly YOU don’t take issue with the domestication and exploitaion of bees, but others need to recognize that it is unnatural to farm the product of another species.
Wild honey being collected is fine. Farming a species simply to reap the benefits of its work is not.
Also, I’m not going to say fuck you, because I don’t inherently hate you because you choose to be a beekeeper. Beekeepers aren’t bad people, your profession isn’t bad, and no one should hate you for it, but understand that the reason why I and others choose not to eat honey is because we want the cycle of using animals to produce a consumer product to end.
Honey, actually, IS nutrient dense, so much so that it is a food that humans can survive off of-solely. Honey bee pollen contains all substances needed to sustain life, including water. It supports the regular daily functions of your body as well as fights diseases. A human can survive off of a hive of honey bee pollen and honey, solely. https://beeinformed.org/2011/06/15/can-man-survive-on-water-and-pollen-alone/
Honey is a natural part of the human diet. Honey is the substance that developed a larger brain in early hominids. Really. Honey gave us bigger brains, as it’s 80-95% sugar content was able to fuel it, along with meat, of course, but honey is one of the earliest documented foods mankind has ever eaten, and an important part in many current cultures. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/humans-the-honey-hunters-9760262/
While excavating a tomb in Egypt, researchers found a pot of 3,000 year old honey, and it’s still good to eat today. http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/history/honey-in-the-pyramids.aspx
Honey is historically and culturally a natural staple and arguably one of the most important foods in human history. The search and harvesting for honey led to the development of tools and it’s ability to fuel us for long periods of time helped to restore energy, so we could use that energy for things like building and developing more advanced technology.
Man has been eating honey since before any language was written or civilization was formed. So yes, it is a natural part of the human diet, and will continue to be so.
I don’t care whether you choose to eat honey or not (even though that actually doesn’t do anything to stop bad animal husbandry practices and it’s actually just a ploy to make people feel morally superior or whatever) I, however, DO care about you spreading misinformation that harms bees and beekeepers and the economy as a whole (y’know since half of our food relies on pollination by domesticated bees, more so for vegetarians and vegans) and that is just so blatantly wrong it is clearly obvious that you have followed blindly and not even attempted to think for yourself. Boycotting honey doesn’t stop the mistreatment of bees, SUPPORTING LOCAL beekeepers and shutting down bad husbandry practices, however, does. So don’t you talk to me about the exploitation of bees until you sign a petition and look at the exploitation of humans that farm your quinoa.
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