In the commercial honey industry, there are several unethical practices carried out on bees. Hives usually contain one queen, hundreds of drones, and thousands of worker bees. Industrial-scale beekeepers typically crush drone bees to death and use them to inseminate the queen bee. Additionally, the queen bee’s wings are often clipped to prevent swarming, which is where a bee colony splits into two or more separate colonies. Swarming is seen as bad for business as it reduces how much honey is produced by particular hives.
In the winter, bee farmers often cull all the bees or depopulate certain bees in a hive because it is cheaper to kill the bees than to provide them with food through the winter. There are several ways to cull off hives: their hives can be sealed off and filled with petrol to burn them, they can be gassed, or drowned with soapy water. Even if hives are not culled, it is not uncommon for bee farmers to lose a significant percentage of their hives by not properly caring for them.
Honey is a bee’s food and provides vital nourishment to them. In their lifetime, a single worker bee may produce only a single teaspoon of honey, so it should only be taken when plentiful. It’s no secret that the population of bees is declining globally. The honey industry contributes to the problem, but is there a way to protect the bees while still enjoying honey?
The best thing to do is eat honey less often or as an occasional treat and buy locally from individual beekeepers who practice sustainability and protect their bees.
Written by Shayma Ahmed
Artwork by Izzy Johns
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