I guess one reason honey just seems like such an awful option to me is because I live on an island, and everyone here is so very aware of what is happening to the bees. We aren't insulated here by a large land mass.

The Big Island of Hawaii has previously been the source for 20% of the queen bees that are used in mainland beekeeping operations.

But since around 2009, we have had the varroa mite here, and already our bee populations are dying off like crazy. The varroa mite attacks honeybees and leaves them susceptible to several diseases. In 2010, over half the hives on the Big Island were lost, and over half the beekeepers lost every hive they had. Even "organic" beekeepers are now having to clip their queens' wings and inseminate the queens - meaning they'll never fly again to mate. The queens are inseminated using Asian bees, a solitary bee immune to varroa.

There IS a solution to keeping our flora pollinated! The solution is to allow the solitary bee varieties (no hive) to do the pollinating. [www.pollinatorparadise.com]

Asian bees are solitary bees that carry a VSH gene (varroa sensitive hygiene) that allows them to resist the varroa mite. But solitary bees are currently being crowded out by HONEYbees. Why? Because solitary bees don't make HONEY.

So, to keep the HONEY beekeepers in business, the solitary bees are being used – even by the “organic” honey beekeepers to genetically manipulate the honeybees .

Please read this from “organic” honey beekeepers in the Big Island:

"Tom Glenn, a bee breeder from Southern California, has yet another approach to varroa control. He selects for a remarkable trait–bees carrying the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) gene that can sense if a capped cell holds mite-infested larvae. Workers will chew through the beeswax caps and eat or discard these larvae, reducing the number of mites in the colony. Since introducing VSH queens into his hives, Tom has not had to treat his bees for mites in ten years.

Accelerating the process of natural selection for desirable traits through artificial insemination of queen bees seemed advantageous to many in class. Others found the idea distasteful, suggesting that instead of tinkering with Mother Nature, we should allow bees and mites to achieve a balance where the two could live together without the bees being decimated. It was argued that the use of toxic chemicals and selective breeding might cause the mites to adapt, becoming even stronger, more formidable foes!

Later that afternoon I watched as Tom anesthetized a queen with carbon dioxide, delicately pulled open her “bottom end” and injected 8 micro liters of semen (collected from 100 drones) into her. An identifying number was then super-glued to her thorax, and one wing-tip clipped to prevent her from flying and mating again. I felt an anthropomorphic pang of sadness. She would never zoom 600 feet up into the sky on a glorious and dizzying flight – never merge in ecstatic union with drones on the wing...

Artificial insemination and VSH Queens seemed like the perfect natural solution, until Jenny Bach presented a counter argument by asking the question, “What is natural?” Her reasoning was as follows: We have interfered with bee genetics for a while now, producing calmer bees which produce more honey and less propolis. We’ve put them in boxes that make honey production easier for us. We’ve transported them across a whole continent to pollinate mono crops such as the almonds in California, where they inter-mingled and spread diseases. We’ve flown bee packages all over the world, spreading mites and Africanized bees.…

[www.volcanoislandhoney.com]

Organic honey beekeepers are now using artificial insemination - not to save our trees, our fruits, and our planet's flora - but to stay in the business of selling the HONEY. The survival of these bees will now become dependent upon human manipulation, and we have no idea how the use of solitary bees will effect the populations of those bees as well.

Honey is not vegan. Please boycott honey and allow the solitary bees to do the job that nature intended: Pollinate the planet's flora.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2011 01:06AM by suncloud.

I'm so glad I don't like honey.

Vegan or no, Honey is not good for the Human Body...it's too stimulating to our nervous systems. A Pure Fruit Diet is nothing in comparison. Honey and Coffee are probably both in the same ballpark, and both habit forming......WY

Thank you so much for your comments marsh and WY!

I think I made a mistake in my post. There are several different types of Asian bees that are solitary and disease resistant; but I think the VSH Asian bee is not a solitary bee. It's actually a honey bee, but beekeepers don't like it. One reason is that even though the Asian bee destroys varroa, it is often a varroa carrier. If the Asian bee could be used as a commercial honeybee replacement, there wouldn't be a problem with varroa. But the Asian bee doesn't produce commercial quality honey; so of course, the beekeepers would rather kill the resistant Asian bee (as they are currently doing in Australia) or use it to inseminate their European bees, so they can keep selling their honey.

What about if I buy local honey from Wisconsin?

Thanks Suncloud, good points.

Here's some good info on bees:

[www.xerces.org]

[www.ournativebees.com]

Great websites brome! Thanks. It feels good to know about the pending legislation.

I noticed that 7 out of 9 bee species listed as PE (possibly extinct), are (were) endemic to Hawaii, and also almost all the CI (critically imperiled) species.

[www.xerces.org]

Hawaii is the true canary in the mine. I think the Mainland should consider themselves prewarned by now, especially since they're having trouble too.

Banana, I noticed that 2 of the "imperiled" species and one of the "critically imperiled" species come from Wisconsin. So in answer to your question (sorry to be blunt), I wouldn't, unless I didn't care.

Unfortunately, many people are buying their own honeybee hives in response to the bees' decline. That will help spread the bees' exposure to disease, but of course the bee dealers are loving it!

I like the idea of supplying nesting sites for the native bees!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2011 10:02PM by suncloud.

Yes, leave the bees alone, eat fruit! Just cause they sell honey in the health stores does'nt mean we should but it or buy into it. Common sense tells me bees produce it for a reason and it sure isnt for us to steal from them.

You can build simple-to-make structures that attract native pollinators (like mason bees) and put them up anywhere you like. Bees and other pollinating insects do quite well in the city because there is less spraying than in food fields so don't let living in an urban area stop you! Google instructions or a place to buy something prefab.
Honey bees are not native to North America but it has become necessary to use them to pollinate the amount of crops we are now growing here. We can help to change that by growing our own food small scale, supporting local organic farmers, promoting backyard bee keeping and providing space for local pollinating insects. May I also suggest that limiting cell phone use and other wireless technology might have a positive impact as well? So plug you machine back into the net with an actual cord and shut the microwaves off, eh? Can't hurt and might help the bees (and you too).

it's the end of the world!
not funny, but hey, i've noticed less bees this year too. how sad, the summer is almost over and i haven't seen a single big furry bumblebee.
i thought it was from too many pesticides, but it looks like the bees are taking another hit.

"We can help to change that by growing our own food small scale, supporting local organic farmers, promoting backyard bee keeping and providing space for local pollinating insects."

That sounds great coco.

Did you forget to mention wild bee colonies? You also forgot about the 90% decline of bumblebee populations due to colony collapse. If you like honey then choose a local beekeeper that has a small operation. Volunteer there for several hours a month to get a good idea of what it really is about, beekeepers really need the help. Read about how honey was obtained from the hive prior to extractors. Educate yourself about more then the top AP press headlines and you will see it's no simple solution to point the finger.

the simple solution is to go vegan, don't eat the honey or any animal product, create a wildlife garden if you can and life as simply as possible.