The Enslavement of Bees

[crystal sage]

The simple fact is that the bees are enslaved. What? Bees slaves? Yes, bees as slaves. Or it's dominionism, exploitation of nature, etc.--whatever you like to call it. As Alice Walker said, "The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." (I would also add that plants and the earth were not made for humans either.) What follows is a look at specifically how honeybees are exploited by man. Note that this follows precisely the same pattern of animal exploitation that you are probably already familiar with.

It is important to realize who is keeping these bees. You may have an image in your mind of a man (indeed, 5% of US beekeepers are women (Hoff & Schertz Willett, 10)) with a few hives out in his backyard. While that is in fact the proper image of most beekeepers, most honey comes from full-time factory bee farmers; check out some illustrative charts.

Hundreds of queen bees in cages waiting to be shipped. A successor queen Click to see a queen bee. is selected by a human instead of the reigning queen--both of whom may have been "artificially inseminated." "Queens can live for as long as five years but most commercial beekeepers replace them every two years

[crystal sage]

http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm

,,, ...Athought provoking article here!!!!

"Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals (Stepaniak)."

"The simple fact is that the bees are enslaved. What? Bees slaves? Yes, bees as slaves. Or it's dominionism, exploitation of nature, etc.--whatever you like to call it. As Alice Walker said, "The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." (I would also add that plants and the earth were not made for humans either.) What follows is a look at specifically how honeybees are exploited by man. Note that this follows precisely the same pattern of animal exploitation that you are probably already familiar with.

It is important to realize who is keeping these bees. You may have an image in your mind of a man (indeed, 5% of US beekeepers are women (Hoff & Schertz Willett, 10)) with a few hives out in his backyard. While that is in fact the proper image of most beekeepers, most honey comes from full-time factory bee farmers; check out some illustrative charts.

Hundreds of queen bees in cages waiting to be shipped. A successor queen is selected by a human instead of the reigning queen--both of whom may have been "artificially inseminated." "Queens can live for as long as five years but most commercial beekeepers replace them every two years...."

Edited April 2, 2007 by crystal sage

[Pax Unum]

so, what, stop using Honey? ask if the Bee's mind? offer a wage? what are you proposing? just wondering

[crystal sage]

Mistreating our bees!!!!

"As I have previous posted, in addition to the very plausible scenario of GMO seeds and plant crops contributing to the killing off the primary pollinators to our entire food chain, BEES, for at least the last 25 years, the bees have been poorly managed, in the insipid and dangerous practice of forcing the majority of the bee populations in the USA to feed on High Fructose Corn Syrup, or other cheap refined sugars, when plant nectar, pollen, sap and other botanical and convertible materials are not available (mid and late summer, all of the Fall, all of the Winter and early Spring).

http://www.mercola.com/2007/mar/22/are-gm-...g-honeybees.htm

http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/204/15/2709

Proper care is...

http://www.mainebee.com/articles/march2001.php

[crystal sage]

... ...I like this 'tongue in cheek' article by Beppe !!!!

http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2007/01/the_gm_bee.html

it starts....

"The bees that feed on GM products don’t appreciate them. They are behind the times. They have not evolved. It’s difficult to keep up with the human race. Their lack of appreciation is such that after a bit, they die. But before that, they pass on the message.

And on GM fields, bees are no longer to be seen. The bees, before dying produce GM honey. We eat GM honey without knowing it. Will it do us any good? We will only know by dying. That’s the good thing about GM. It’s always a surprise.

How do the beekeepers find out that their bees go over the boundary into GM fields? The bees move around without taking precautions. They go from one flower to another. From one GM cultivation to another GM cultivation. Even in the experimental ones. With GM products that have not yet been approved. The bees are against progress. Those that don’t adapt are lost. And don’t get quoted on the Stock Exchange........"

[BurnSide]

They are no more enslaved than cows, or sheep, or chickens, etc etc. They are, as you describe them, farm animals.

They however are insects, and are completely happy and fullfilled as a species as long as they are able to tend to the duties that are naturally programmed into them. Bee farms are nothing more than hotels for Bees in that sense.

[SilverCougar]

yum yum honey!

[crystal sage]

organic... bee farming!!!! treating bees with respect and love... not just an economic product.... Remember the best/healthiest food is cooked with love... all farming should be done with love and respect for the crop..and the environment..... eg buying free range eggs to support the idea... the method... the farmer... and the chook who is laying down it's life for us... it's about respecting all in the world..on all levels...

Stressed meat...has stressed hormones in it... happy farms produce healthy food.... look at KOBI beef!!!

daily massages... the odd drink total relaxation... produces outstanding meat quality... we needn't go that far... but we owe it to our food chain... to ensure that their short lives are OK.... as a thank you even.......repect... for putting their lives for their country...

Farmers too should be respected..and assisted...at the moment...they are stressed out of all proportion often suicidal... soon traditionally produced foods will be rare... like boutiques... only for the rich.... and everyone else will just get the plastic...genetically altered...chemically fuelled food grown by the big emotionless.. caringless... corporations..

The farmers are there for us!!!!!

We need to support them to assist them in their caring duties.. to ensure that all the people of the world have the best healthiest foods possible...

Who in their right mind would be a farmer today... the stresses.. odds... the finacial burden... the 20 hour days...

Why do the do it??? for love... the need to nurture...a calling...the need to reclaim the purity of nature....

This need... this heart.. this care... is mostly not seen in most huge corporations...

Hopefully that will change....

Edited April 2, 2007 by crystal sage

[Bill Hill]

Everyone love's Bees. It's the perfect symbiotic relationship. Plus they make good pets.. I have two cats, one dog and three Bees.

Hello there little one..are you taking a little break? Carry on...

Edited April 3, 2007 by billyhill

[EmpressStarXVII]

Crystal, I think it's great that you take the time to look at the smaller things in life, not many of us do that .

[kevinG]

How would we convince lions to become vegans?

Anyhow, while we are on the topic of bees, here is an interesting read describing why they do there dance. You may be surprised.

http://science.box.sk/newsread.php?newsid=6321

[m. Moe]

Bees are slaves for the Queen bee anyway. Atleast this way we get honey. Most bees are mindless worker drones anyway. It would be like mistreating a robot.

And how do we not mistreat bees? It's not like a beekeeper comes home and beats them after a long night of drinking.

Remember the best/healthiest food is cooked with love

How do you cook food with love? Can I have a scientific basis on that fact?

eg buying free range eggs to support the idea

Free range eggs are sometimes accidently fertilized. No offense to your idea, but the last thing I want to see while cracking an egg to fry up for breakfast is a chicken fetus.

Do we not all ready treat our cows good? When I drive down the highway and see pastures and pastures of cows, not one of them looks "sad" or "stressed". Walking around and grazing on the praries, what other "Earthly delights" could a cow possibly want?

[+joc]

So are we now supposed to assess bees the same rights as humans?

They make honey...that is there sole purpose in life...honey is good...I can't believe I am even responding to this....

[Kalien]

I prefer agave nectar, but the way they farm bees now is better than before. These ones don't get killed for the honey.

[Cadetak]

Well we need to eat...and life eats other life. Thats just how things work.

[crystal sage]

(The bee has the densest neuro-tissue of any creature.)

The Champaign, Illinois, NEWS-GAZETTE for October 2001 reports on the work of Gene Robinson, a professor of entomology and director of the University of Illinois neuroscience program. He is discovering that honeybees change the way they use certain proteins - resulting in an ability to improve their learning skills as they age. Apparently, honeybees scale back the amount of the AChE protein used in their brains, even going so far as to modify their gene activity, as they mature and switch from working around the hive to foraging away from home. The studies link human aging disease and associated cognitive dysfunctions with the way human use the protein; bees apparently have a better mechanism for controlling its ill effects

According to http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Beekeeping/

An Associated Press release in July, 2000, describes a decline in honeybees in the USA. Focusing on Virginia, the claim is made that 90 percent of wild honeybee colonies have died in the past five years. Paul Davis, past president of the Richmond Beekeepers Association, says kept bee populations have fallen by 60 to 70 percent as fewer people are becoming beekeepers.

An article on the May 2000 CNN Web Site indicates that experts warn over a third of the world's food supply may be lost due to a developing shortage of honey bees. The article mentions the work of Steven Buchman and Gary Nabhan and the Forgotten Pollinators Campaign.

Honeybees, the primary pollinator for many food plants, have seen a drastic decrease in numbers

May 5, 2000

Web posted at: 3:26 PM EDT (1926 GMT)

(CNN) -- One third of all our food -- fruits and vegetables -- would not exist without pollinators visiting flowers. But honeybees, the primary species that fertilizes food-producing plants, have suffered dramatic declines in recent years, mostly from afflictions introduced by humans.

A variety of troubles threaten the pollinators: Endless waves of development destroy nesting and feeding grounds; pesticides decimate them along with other beneficial insects.

Agribusiness increasingly treats honeybees as a mass commodity, exposing them to uncontrollable plagues of pests, introduced through human error.

Global recovery effort needed

Researcher Steve Buchman has seen fewer and fewer pollinators during travels that have taken him from the Sonoran Desert to the Malaysian rainforests.

"I was hearing from other floral biologists around the world and they were seeing the same thing," Buchman said.

Along with Gary Nabhan, he co-founded the Forgotten Pollinators Campaign to protect the flower fertilizers. The group seeks to bring together farmers, beekeepers and pesticide applicators, "people who don't normally talk to other," to find common ground, Buchman said.

Solving that problem, Buchman said, will require an effort that stretches from farms, orchards and backyards to the deserts of Mexico.

[crystal sage]

http://www.iqnewsnet.com/displaysub.asp?cat=E

Honeybee genome The honeybee is the fourth insect to have had its genome sequenced, following the fruit fly, mosquito and silkworm. Honeybees possess a highly complex symbolic language second only to that of primates, and also have a complex social behaviour. They achieve this with a brain of only one million neurons, only four times more than in the brain of the fruit fly. Around 10,000 genes have been identified in the honeybee genome so far, about 30 percent less than in the fruit fly and mosquito genomes. Analysis of the genome is throwing light on where honeybees originated, why they have suffered a precipitous decline in recent years, and how bees maintain genetic diversity with only one queen in a hive. [G][E]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa...79183414B7F0000

[crystal sage]

this is an interesting journey !!! ..After reading about the neural density of the bee... at least 4 times of a fruit fly.. It has a much higher IQ.... as seen in the article below!!! I t explains why wild honey bees may avoid GM crops!!!

Oh... you know how we are often told that the safe way to stop insect pests from reaching our crops is to spray with diluted detergents with a little cayenne or garlic added... well it seems to hinder bees as well!!!! we may have to treat the 'grey water' we recycle to water our gardens... a bit more too!!!!

Here's an excerpt I found as advice to keep away swarming bees!!!! .... "

It doesn't sound like it takes much to harm bees.

Langston suggests using a solution of one-half to one cup of dishwashing liquid to one gallon of water to treat a honey bee swarm. Starting at the top, mist the bees with the solution, taking care to wet the ones that have fallen to the ground, as well. If they have swarmed on a tree branch,

Langston notes that you can then take a black trash bag and slowly put it up around the bees. Close the bag, cut the branch and tie the bag. Then, place the bag on the ground and the bees will be dead in about 40 minutes (although it's also advised that you spray the soapy solution on the bag, in case the bees start chewing through the bag).

"We don't recommend that you use any pesticide on them, because if you do, they'll get upset, bust out and disperse," Langston notes. "With soap and water, they don't feel threatened." It is further suggested that although you may have knocked down most of the population, there may still be foragers and scouts out there. You'll need to come back around dusk to get the nest."

http://animalliberationfront.com/Philosoph...r%20Speech.html

In his first book, Rattling the Cage, Wise completely dismissed the idea that insects might reason. I told him I knew of much evidence that honeybees and other insects reason. He requested references. The evidence I supplied included the following: When a honeybee colony requires a new hive site, honeybee scouts search for a cavity of suitable location, dryness, and size. Each scout evaluates potential sites and reports back, dancing about the site that she most recommends. A honeybee scout may advertise one site over a period of days, but she repeatedly inspects her choice. She also examines sites proposed by others. If a sister's find proves more desirable than her own, the honeybee stops advocating her original choice and starts dancing in favor of the superior site. In other words, she's capable of changing her mind and her "vote." Eventually colony members reach a consensus.

More evidence: Researchers at Princeton University showed some captive honeybees food placed on a boat in the middle of a lake. When the honeybees were released to return to their nearby hive, they communicated the food's location to their sisters. No bees set out to the food. Then the researchers moved the food to the lake's far shore. Again they showed the location to captive honeybees. Again the bees flew back to their hive and told their sisters where to find the food. Guess what? This time many other bees promptly set out, flying over the lake to the food. Honeybees have a mental map of their environment. A water location, in the middle of a lake, didn't make sense. But the new location--on land--was plausible. Honeybees assess the information they receive and believe or disbelieve depending on its plausibility. To his "amazement and horror," Wise found such evidence compelling. He now credits honeybees with the ability to reason.

[crystal sage]

http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/3112714/

"Bee abundance data were collected using pan traps and standardized sweep netting, and pollination deficit was assessed by comparing the number of seeds per fruit from open-pollinated and supplementally pollinated flowers. There was no pollination deficit in organic fields, a moderate pollination deficit in conventional fields, and the greatest pollination deficit in GM fields. Bee abundance was greatest in organic fields, followed by conventional fields, and lowest in GM fields. Overall, there was a strong, positive relationship between bee abundance at sampling locations and reduced pollination deficits. Seed set in B. napus increased with greater bee abundance. Because B. rapa is an obligate outcrossing species, the lack of pollination deficit in the organic (B. rapa) fields likely was due to the high bee abundance rather than a lower dependence of B. rapa on pollinators than B. napus canola. Our study illustrates the importance of wild bees to agricultural production and suggests that some agroecosystems may better sustain wild bee abundance, resulting in greater seed production."

That on top of the terminator seeds of Monsanto

http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/monsanto/terminator.shtml

http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GEFood/Terminator.asp

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/

Edited April 4, 2007 by crystal sage

[crystal sage]

http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2007/01/the_gm_bee.html

[SeaMare]

If it's any solace to you, CS, I am on board with you. I wouldn't have used such a strong term as slavery, but I agree with the principle. I know that I now will be classified as a first class vegan nut, but hey, be my guest. For the same reasons, i don't ride horses anymore either, and I love to ride. As it said in one of your quotes, animals are there to be of themselves, for themselves.

I accept however that not everyone is ready to see that. But in that case animals deserve at least to be treated with care and respect. Which they are not, in 99% of cases.

With regards to bees however, we have a little problem. Even if mankind had a sudden bout of inspiration and abandoned eating honey, we'd still have to actively cultivate and manage the bee population. They are a major pollinators for our crops. Without bees, we will have a serious problem. Maybe the current bee crisis is a blessing in disguise...for the bees, as we'll have to take better care of them. Maybe there is also a spiritual connection between bees & man, and they need to teach us something? They are not for nothing called social insects, and man has integrated the symbol of the bee since the dawn of culture.

[crystal sage]

Museum of Beekeeping

http://www.karlovci.co.yu/english/privreda/muz_pcela.htm

If it's any solace to you, CS, I am on board with you. I wouldn't have used such a strong term as slavery, but I agree with the principle. I know that I now will be classified as a first class vegan nut, but hey, be my guest. For the same reasons, i don't ride horses anymore either, and I love to ride. As it said in one of your quotes, animals are there to be of themselves, for themselves.

I accept however that not everyone is ready to see that. But in that case animals deserve at least to be treated with care and respect. Which they are not, in 99% of cases.

With regards to bees however, we have a little problem. Even if mankind had a sudden bout of inspiration and abandoned eating honey, we'd still have to actively cultivate and manage the bee population. They are a major pollinators for our crops. Without bees, we will have a serious problem. Maybe the current bee crisis is a blessing in disguise...for the bees, as we'll have to take better care of them. Maybe there is also a spiritual connection between bees & man, and they need to teach us something? They are not for nothing called social insects, and man has integrated the symbol of the bee since the dawn of culture.

Human Bee-ings ...

http://www.erm.ee/?node=148

Beekeepers were usually people of older generation (Photo 5), who had more patience and time to take care of bees. In addition to that, elderly people had more practical and spiritual experience, and, contemplating the circulation of life, they often compared the commune of bees with the commune of people. Obviously it is much more difficult for people to live a harmonious life than it is for bees, because of their vices - envy, laziness, low morale, and so on. Elderly beekeepers were similar to bees - they were fond of work, exact, had harmonious relationships with family members, neighbours, and friends, did not envy anybody, did not gossip or swear, and therefore served as an example of wisdom for those surrounding them. It was believed that it was only to reasonable people that bees brought honey, but beekeepers had to share this god-sent gift with other people.

Reflecting upon bees and their origin, the aim of their existence might be the religious perception of God. In spiritual folk culture bees have close associations with the transcendental, the holiness. The founder of the Museum of Beekeeping realized it very well and decided to show at the museum that the forefathers of Lithuanians had had the correct spiritual understanding of the divine origin of natural phenomena: earth, water, fire, bees, and man.

The divine origin of the bee is shown in three sculptures in the museum exposition. The first one depicts an Egyptian myth (Photo 6): Ra, the God of Sun, looking down at the Earth, saw that the people had forgotten all about God and were behaving in an undignified manner. Seeing this, tears started running down his cheeks. But the God's kindness to people became manifest in the fact that his tears turned into bees, who brought honey to people.

http://www.bf.uni-lj.si/jbozic/muzej/hivefron.html

http://www.outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/Mus...ping_Museum.htm

Edited June 13, 2007 by crystal sage

[War-Junkie]

if the bees don't like doing what they are supposed to do then why don't they adapted and try and become the dominant species so they can tell us what to do. but until then there making me honey

Edited June 17, 2007 by War-Junkie