Bees visit up to 1,500 flowers in order to collect enough nectar to fill their stomach. On returning to the hive, they regurgitate the nectar, in a process that results in the creation of honey.<\/span><\/p>\n Each bee produces the equivalent of barely one-twelfth of a teaspoon full of honey throughout their life – and every gram is essential for the hive.<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, bees fly approximately 55,000 miles and visit two million flowers to produce 450 grams of honey.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Commercially bred bee populations sometimes succumb to a disease called “colony collapse disorder” – which scientists associate with “bee management stress”, “pesticide poisoning” and “inadequate foraging\/ malnutrition”.<\/span><\/p>\n Bees are bred and raised with the sole purpose of producing honey. However, breeding sometimes involves transporting different species of bees to the same hive, which increases their susceptibility to disease and death<\/strong>. <\/span>These diseases <\/strong>are then transmitted to thousands of other pollinators<\/strong>, on whom we and other animals rely for survival.<\/span><\/p>\n Due to the mass breeding of bees, the number of bumblebees and many species of birds has decreased.<\/strong><\/p>\n Bees are highly social <\/strong>and collaborative insects. <\/strong>They use a unique and complex form of communication, based on sight, movement and smell, which even scientists do not fully understand.<\/strong><\/p>\n It is known that they communicate with each other through complex “dancing” movements.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Research has shown that bees have the ability to think abstractly, as well as to pick out members of their family from the other bees in the hive.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Beekeepers use and exploit bees for 2 reasons:<\/b><\/p>\n – For the production of honey<\/strong> they [beekepers] can sell and make a profit.<\/span><\/p>\n – For pollination of plant or tree species<\/strong> (e.g. almond trees<\/strong>), an activity which also brings them profit.<\/span><\/p>\n [Honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly (bee milk), propolis and bee venom are all products of labor-intensive activities of work animals.]<\/span><\/p>\n Unethical practices in beekeeping<\/b><\/p>\n Whenever a queen is transferred to a new colony, she is sent with bee-“bodyguards” to protect her who are always killed by bees native to the new colony.<\/strong><\/p>\n Most beekeepers do NOT leave any honey for the bees as they normally should, in order to help them survive the winter, and give them sugar water instead. This cheap sugar substitute does not contain the nutrients, fats and vitamins that honey has. This unethical practice forces the bees to work harder to replace the missing honey.<\/span><\/p>\n In very cold areas, if the beekeepers decide it is too financially damaging to keep the bees alive in the winter, they kill the insects with cyanide gas.<\/span><\/p>\n How are queen bees sent when sold to other beekeepers?<\/b><\/p>\n <\/b>Queen bees are sent to their buyers in a box by post.<\/span><\/p>\n Worst of all, in order to fertilize the queens, beekeepers get sperm from the drones by crushing them, killing them instantly.<\/b><\/p>\n\n
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