Hi all
In continuing to read about the evils of modern beekeeping, I have learned that --

> In the last century, beehives have been designed for easy observation and manipulation by beekeepers and for transportation on the back of semitrucks to serve as pollinators at sites separated by thousands of miles. The social organization of bee colonies has been transformed, with fewer guard bees, a shortened or nonexistent hibernation season, and a modified, larger-sized prefab wax comb (Kritsky 2010; Stephen 1969). The bodies of individual workers have changed color from black to yellow, become almost one-third larger in size, and sport more hair. Bees now have a reshaped digestive tract and an exoskeleton almost twice as thick as those of their ancestors just a hundred years ago (Michener 1974; Winston 1987). Workers are more docile than they once were and have a life span shortened by 15 percent (Preston 2006; Stephen 1969).  This essay explores how ecological legacies and practices of empire have come to bear on the honeybee in the 21st century.

Kosek, Jake. "Ecologies of empire: on the new uses of the honeybee." Cultural Anthropology 25.4 (2010): 650-678.

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