As the "Pollinator" in many internet groups, I occasionally get letters
such as the following one. I have removed the name of the originator.....
 
<< Hi Pollinator, (name and address here), Master Gardener....my daughter is a
 vegetarian and received this from PeTA,animal rights people. I tried to
 convince her that this is not the case but didn't do well. Hearing from
 someone in the bee business I hope will. I told her this was biased and not
 what you and the other beekeepers do. Thank you for your time and input.>>
 
   The PETA people play fast and loose with the facts, and they use some
pretty charged emotional language to "prove" their point. They discredit
themselves in so doing.
 
   Let me say that beekeeping is not a highly profitable endeavor nowadays,
and we are all struggling to survive. One of the things that holds us (besides
the hope of better times) is a love of our charges -- our warm and fuzzy
friends.  I literally get sick when I see my bees suffering from an illegal
pesticide application on a nearby farm. And I also get high while watching
them pollinate an orchard or a field of melons.
 
   I got sore at another beekeeper one time, when he was letting his bees
starve out in the spring. The bees were climbing up the outsides of the hives
and falling off, dying on the ground. A little feed would have saved them; he
didn't care. (Maybe I should have reported him for inhumane treatment of his
animals.)  This kind of beekeeper is an exception, and he did not survive in
the business.
 
    The bees are our livestock, why should we be cruel or kill them. They are
our livelihood. There is no excuse for cruelty. When they are sick, we
medicate them, unless it is impossible, and we must destroy one hive with a
contagious disease for the good of all.
 
    If the PETA people get their way, and no one keeps bees, who do you think
will pollinate our food crops?  Honeybees can no longer live in the US without
care, a keeper is needed to protect them from introduced diseases and
parasites. We try to help them recover when they are poisoned by an illegal
pesticide application, and feed them when they would starve, because of
clearcut logged forests and sanitary, hedgerow-free farms.
 
    There are only 1600 full time beekeeping enterprizes left in the USA. Most
of these are family enterprizes. Since we have few feral (wild) honeybees
left, and only about half the number of hives we had a generation ago, the
services of these beekeepers is critical to the pollination of our crops.
Actually they are doing a far better job of pollination nowadays, with a lot
fewer bees, because they migrate. Like the combines moving north across out
central section with the seasonal harvest, beekeepers start in the south in
late winter and move northward as the season progresses, pollinating many of
our orchards and veggie fields in the process. Many tractor-trailer loads of
bees move up and down Interstate 95 near me, each spring and fall.
 
    Contracts for crop pollination provide a greater share of commercial
beekeeper income than honey nowadays.   So tell the PETA people to quit biting
the hand that feeds them.
 
    Here are some more specific comments:
 
<<In the honey industry, the buzz word is profit. >>
 
    Ho, ho!  Tell that to my banker!
 
<<Like factory farmers, many beekeepers take inhumane steps to ensure personal
safety and reach production quotas. It is not unusual for larger honey
producers to cut off
the wings of the queen bee so that she cannot leave the colony, or to have
 her artificially inseminated on a bee-sized version of the factory farm
 "rape rack."(6) >>
 
     Pretty emotional language.....  My queens are mated naturally, as are
most of the queens raised in the USA.   A few that are used in research or for
breeder queens that must have carefully controlled genetics, are artificially
inseminated. The queen is put to sleep first, and gently, carefully
inseminated. The use of the word "rape" inplies violence, assault, and this is
sure not the case here.
 
  I have heard of beekeepers clipping wings in byegone years, as a means to
prevent swarming, but I doubt the practice is common today. It didn't work
then and it wouldn't work now.
 
<<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.>>
 
    That is the choice of the bees. If they have full bellies, they are
unlikely to kill workers -- or the new queen. If they are in a period of
dearth, they might. But requeening is deliberately done where there is a good
nectar flow to avoid unnecessary death. When a failing queen must be replaced
at a time when there is little feed, beekeepers generally feed the bees to get
better acceptance.
 
 <<Large commercial operations also may 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 or tasty. >>
 
   This is one of the few "facts" that has some truth to it. But it has been
forced on us by changing times. I used to leave a full super on each hive for
their winter feed (and supplement it, if necessary, in the spring with
additional frames of honey).
 
    Today, we must remove all honey supers when we treat for parasitic mites
in the fall. This is so that no honey will ever be contaminated. I have no
place to store hundreds of full supers to put back later on the hives, when
the treatment is over. If I try to store full supers they get full of bugs and
mice. So I extract the honey. Then I feed the bees corn syrup through the
winter. The bees stay healthy; they do not die from the mites. Here in South
Carolina, there are no significant sources of nectar in the winter, but plenty
of pollen. The bees, who have plenty of syrup with pollen to fill out their
nutritional needs, seem to happily thrive on this change. Whatever makes my
bees happy makes me happy!
 
<<In colder areas, if the keepers consider it too costly to keep the bees
alive through the winter, they will destroy the hives by pouring gasoline on
them, killing most of the bees with the fumes, and setting them on fire.>>
 
    I guess, if you are going to tell a lie, make it a big one!  I have a lot
of money invested in my equipment, and I will not willingly allow any of it to
be destroyed, unless it is contaminated with contagious disease. Why would
anyone destroy tens of thousands of dollars worth of useable equipment?
 
   Unfortuately vandals do this for me, every now and then, and the pace seems
to be increasing. I may have bees in a hundred locations at any one time, and
cannot guard them all. Maybe the vandals have been listening to PETA, or the
the "killer bee" hype from the media....... Sometimes anti-bee groups get laws
passed prohibiting beekeeping in a whole area, which makes a nice empty
ecological niche for uncontrolled Africanized bees to fill.
 
<<Other times, keepers, who feel that lost bees are easily replaced,
 allow them to die when trees are sprayed with insecticide.>>
 
    I always do whatever I can to salvage my bees that are damaged by
pesticide misuse. It costs me a lot of money to do this.  I also do everything
in my power to bring the misuser to justice.
 
 <<Bees are often killed, or their wings and legs torn off, by haphazard
handling.>>
 
    The bees will punish beekeepers who handle them rough. The odor of crushed
bees sets off the hive and massive stinging can result. I can't say this never
happens, but it is not the rule with any beekeeper with common sense. New
beekeepers who are terrified are the ones most apt to handle bees clumsily.
 
   << To produce a pound of honey, bees must get pollen from 2 million flowers
 and must fly more than 55,000 miles.(7) Honeybees returning to the hive
 from a pollen-seeking expedition "dance" in figure eights to "map out" a
 route for other bees to follow. These dances "encode information about the
 distance and direction of a target that can be miles away from the nest,"
 said Thomas D. Seeley of Cornell University.(8) >>
 
   Ain't it great that bees are willing to do this!  They are always happiest
if they have work to do. So I try to keep them happy, trucking them around to
various nectar and pollen sources, and feeding them when there aren't any.
 
 <<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.>>
 
  In the "good ole days" that PETA refers to, the *unlucky* hive that was due
for harvest was subjected to burning sulfur to kill the bees and brood. Maybe
the PETA folks ought to see the puking, dying bees that result from sulfuring.
Nowadays honey can be harvested without killing the hive.  Modern beekeeping
has greatly reduced the suffering.......
 
 <<In 1987, the honey "crop" netted $115.4 million.(9) Luckily, many
sweeteners are
 made without killing bees: Rice syrup, molasses, sorghum, barley malt,
 maple syrup, and dried fruit or fruit concentrates can replace honey in
 recipes.(10) Use these substitutes to keep your diet bee-free. >>
 
    Yes, there are lots of good sweeteners, but we don't hear many reports of
folks who get relief from arthritis, allergies, etc., from all these
others.... My customers often tell me they got health benefits from our honey.
 
    The loss of our pollinators is one of the most important environmental
issues of the day, though most folks don't know that yet. Whether from
poisoning our bees, or driving beekeepers bankrupt, we are on a downward slide
that could well lead to famine in America, if it continues.
 
    Our beekeeping systems probably aren't perfect, especially by PETA
standards; there are a few really lousy beekeepers.  But the emotionally
charged condemnation of all is an exercise in fantasy. And anyone who thinks
that wild bees can accomplish our food crop pollination (let alone pollinate
the seeds and berries that help feed birds and other wildlife) is living in an
ivory tower.
 
   I used to be sympathetic to PETA. After all, the Scripture tells us that a
godly man is kind to his beast.....   But they have hardened into an extremist
position, and they do some pretty unethical things to accomplish their goals
(like tying up a beekeeper's 800 number to drive him out of business).
 
   My bees are free to leave their hives and return to the wild anytime they
choose. Fortunately they seem to recognize how good they have it, and usually
choose to stay in the accomodations I provide.  Last spring I noticed a swarm
hanging on a low limb and went to put them in a hive. They apparently had
already selected a hollow tree out somewhere in the woods, and when I set the
box under them, they left en masse to go to their chosen home in the woods.
 
   I watched them, wishing I could tell them that they carried their own death
with them. We control the varroa mites, but we cannot exterminate them. So
this swarm left with a few mites, that in a season, or maybe two, at best,
they would die of these mites. I wanted to tell them that they were better off
under my care. But they were not receptive; they were off to do their own
thing. So I sadly said goodbye.
 
    (I think there is a sermon in there, somewhere.)
 
[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
 
Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm