Bees Make Honey, Not Money

A little bit in your tea. Or some on your sandwich. Or maybe a whole honeycomb invaded and stripped. The honey’s what they’re there for, but what they take with them is more than they’re getting paid for.

Buzzing For Profit

When we consider buying honey from these evil entities, we’re putting money into the hands that rip off bee’s wings. We’re taking the queen’s crowning achievement – honey – and leaving the bees without a vital part of their lives.

That’s right, hard-working bees are kept as prisoners – slaves, really – to make honey for us, and money for others. The honey industry builds farms to house and harvest bees and their important output. But at what cost?

That Stings

Below are the top 5 reasons you should stop buying honey and make your own at home. I’ve even added a few resources on how to make your own honey, and how honey can be collected more humanely.

1. The Bees Aren’t Treated Well

Bees used for honey collection are mistreated to the point of abuse. There’s such a thing as a Hive Mind, but not a Hive Union. Honey bees are poorly treated, injured, and forced to live in cramped conditions. They must endure the stress of being transported, which they aren’t accustom to.

Farm bees aren’t allowed to do what’s natural to them. Typically bees have a routine called “swarming” when a new queen is about to be born, wherein they fly to the spot where the new colony will be. To stop this from happening, the bee farmers cut the delicate wings of the new queen, or just killing and replacing the old queen.

2. Bees Are Needed In The Wild

Bees are needed to pollenate plants in the wild. Bees and other animals – butterflies, bats, birds, beetles, and other insects – are natural pollinators. They are absolutely necessary to help plants and trees grow.

When bees dig into flowers for their food, they end up covered in pollen that flies with them on their travels. The pollen naturally deposits itself, helping the plants proliferate, and our air stay healthy and clean.

3. Bees Need Honey

Honey is nice to have, and a great substitute for nasty, refined sugar, but we don’t actually need it. Bees need their honey to survive the winter. It’s made with nutrients bees need, and a colony needs around 60 pounds of honey in order to make it through the cold months. Oftentimes, large honey businesses will take a hive’s honey and replace it with a cheap sugar substitute that’s not as healthy for the insects.

4. Bees Don’t Make Money

Bees are super hard workers, oftentimes visiting 10, 000 flowers in a single day to make about a teaspoon of honey. So honey means a lot to them.

And each bee has a specific job, depending on age, sex, and season. By interfering, humans steal more than bees’ product, we steal their livelihood.

5. Stealing Is Wrong

Take a look at the honey in your pantry. Did you go to the grocery store and walk out with it? Without paying? Sure, Kraft or Busy Bee got the money, but you did steal it from the workers. Bees – the real workers.