On Bees and the Stealing of Their Honey

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Edited by CJ Tointon

Our relationship with bees is important.  We are somehow plant-linked to them.  We need them as much as they need the flowers’ nectar.  Without them, human life (along with many other life-forms) would die.  

Surely, symbiotically, bee and beekeeper can be friends.  An apiary should be a nice place if bees are being sheltered there for the work they do pollinating seed and fruit crops.  Here’s the human horticulturalist securing his plants by creating an environment conducive to pollination whilst providing a safe haven for the local bees.  A harmless interaction - bees protected in hives and beekeeper protecting his livelihood ... oh, and stealing a little bit of their honey too!

And there you have it - 'steal'.  Humans love to get something for nothing or at least for bargain cost.  Bees can be a bargain.  They provide so much for so little input.  The honey flows!  But it’s not clear if the creatures readily give up their hard-earned nectar (which they’ve transformed into honey) or if they’re adversely affected by the taking of it!  But surely, you say, it’s only the excess honey (which they probably don’t need because they always over-produce) that the beekeeper steals?  Surely it's the same as someone stealing the excess money in your bank account because you don’t actually need it.  This nicking, lifting, thieving and stealing is at the heart of the change-of-attitude that we all have to adopt.  It’s wrong to thieve from animals.  But most of us do it, by being complicit consumers of abattoir products and not realising the mess we're leaving behind.  One wonders about the Karma created by those on the front line, the producers, the keepers, the cattle-prod wielders, all employees of the 'Animal Industry' - as well as the ordinary consumer.  They leave devastation in their wake.