#anyway buy local honey and support your local bee population

[angstitty]

I have talked to a few vegan people about this because I’m reducing my consumption of animal byproducts and they all told me they didn’t eat honey or bee byproducts but also could not come up with an actual reason other than “it’s not vegan” according to the definition of vegan. I then went searching on google (nada) and Reddit to find both the community of beekeepers and vegans.

People in the r/vegan argued that beekeeping is against the natural order of bees; in order to harvest the honey that bees consume they have to feed them a substitute and sometimes supplements, some might also drug bees in order to control production and handling (all according to redditors, I didn’t find actual proof of beekeeping being harmful to their life’s but yeah). I also remember someone mentioning that in order to move the hives and care for it/production they sometimes accidentally squish some bees to death, and that if a queen is sick they’ll kill and replace her, which is in my opinion a crazy thing to be focusing about like, yeah obv this wouldn’t exactly happen in the wild but also it would in the sense that bees dedicate their lives to making honey, the hive, and their queen, they will also kill a queen if she’s incompetent so like???

People in the r/beekeeping where just like “man I love bees I would give my life for them”.

So I’m conclusion I might just be screaming in a big echo chamber but I don’t think honey making is harmful, and I’ll keep eating it. Also I love y’all vegans out there and welcome anyone who wants to prove me wrong to show me some proofs.

“don’t eat honey because it exploits the bees and they can’t consent!!!” bees are literally unionized and will walk out if they don’t like being in the beekeeper’s hives

[rhinos-crafts]

Wanted to talk about yarn and the whole 'vegan yarn' thing. The first thing ive learned about veganism/vegeterianism, is there is no good answer to a lifestyle these days, except to do your best to educate yourself on where your stuff comes from, and how it affects the environment.

With yarn, natural (animal fiber/plant fiber) vs synthetic yarns. The first question you have to ask yourself, is how much you want to prioritize ppl over animals. Im not kidding, for every animal you believe doesnt suffer for your prpduct, unless you personally know the person making your product and that it doesnt come from a factory, at least one person has suffered instead. Additionaly, synthetic products add to pollution either because they dont break down at neadly the same rate as natural products, or everytime it is washed, synthetic fibers are released/ worn off and released into the water ect.

In terms of use, wool and other animal based fibers are heck warm, and most of them are better at staying warm while wet. Wheras with synthetics you have to work much harder for it to be warm, and in my experience any water ruins its insulation abilities. Natural fibers are also much, much easier to dye, and require less chemicals. With wool you literally just need some vinegar (and even that can be optional depending on the dye used) and a natural dye. Walnuts, pine needles, flowers, food, all can make very nice dyes without creating chemicals that go who knows where when washed down the drain.

Now the actual gathering of natural fibers. In terms of wool and animal fibers, obviously if you go cheap and buy off of amazon ect. the chances of buying wool from a less than optimal farm are fairly high. But consider that even then, wool even on the animal, has to be kept clean. The animal also doesnt die for the product, and can live long lives producing tons of wool, that they would have shed off naturally anyway. With breeds that dont shed naturally, if they arent sheared their coats become over grown, matted, and home to many gnarly bugs that are bad for the animals health. Shearing also helps mothers protect their babies from the weather, as theyre just as sensitive to the temperature as newborn babies, and are better at staying in a warm shelter with ther child. There are also tons and tons of small farms with just a couple animals that you can speak with their owners personally, that are gauranteed to be as vigilant and compassioante about animal health ect as you are.

All of this versus acrylic / yarn factories and the people working in them.

I understand the point of veganism, at least in some peoples eyes. Not forcing animals to produce for their human overlords.

But unfortunately at this point in human society, there are many many animals (and insects like honey bees) that have been domesticated and interwoven into human society so heavily, that abandoning them could cause more harm than good. The vegatables and fruit ect are pollinated by bees, both native and 'captive'. Abandoning them and local keepera harm their population and ability to make our food possible does more harm than good. Abandoning wool products makes it harder for the owners of those animals to care for them, and will leave then in neglect.

If veganism is what helps you sleep at night, by no means do i want to stop or judge you for it. But please for the love of this society and natural world, do real research. Look at more sites than just 'vegan' sites as they already are biased and will give you biased information. Everyone will have a bias, but it helps to understand more than just one to make informed decisions.

Tldr: acrylic/vegan yarns arent the best for the natural world including the animals living in it, and its entirely possible to buy animal products without supporting corporate abuse, and infact supporting local businesses and honest work. Also its important to be as informed as possible in your products, where they come from, and what they donin the end.

[cookinguptales]

kaleideyes said: HOW DO YOU SPONSOR A BEE HIVE?!

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Ask around at your local farms! (Or just google, I guess.) A bunch of farms are starting to do that now, where you can pay a certain amount and it’ll go towards the maintenance of a hive and depending on how much you donate, you might get honey from the hive. It can be a real struggle to maintain hives (it’s very expensive) so a lot of beekeepers are turning to a sort of crowdfunding model.

I personally am incredibly extra so I’m doing a half hive sponsorship at a (semi) local cemetery. Gonna get that spooky honey. Mine is also fun because if I’m in town during the harvest, I get to help. :o

Anyway, I’m a Big Fan of bees and honey (you should... see my honey cabinet...) so I’m always trying to plant bee-friendly plants and support local apiaries at the farmer’s market but if you can’t do that tbh every little bit helps. There are a lot of charities out there that’ll let you donate to apicultural initiatives. Or that’ll help you yell at your local representative so they can ban agricultural practices that harm local populations. And honestly, just buying a jar of local (to you) honey is good when you can. It helps prop up the people doing the hard work of caring for bees. It’s also good when you can donate to groups that are saving bees that don’t produce honey! They’re super important as well!

[sylphidae]

Honestly tho its not vegans who are at fault. We aren’t gonna eat eggs because it goes against our beliefs. Our goal is to avoid animal products full stop, no matter how cruel or “humane” the means of producing them are. It’s honestly more on people who eat eggs anyway but buy them from huge factory farm corporations. Instead of guilting people who don’t want to eat specific foods into buying from local farms, encourage people who actually enjoy and want to buy milk and eggs to do so locally. The impact of the ordinary omnivore is much greater due to the fact that they are the majority. The impact of one vegan buying eggs locally is no match for the majority of people who are non-vegans buying eggs from mass-production factory farms. The same with honey. If you like honey and want to eat it thats okay, just buy locally from small bee farms (I do) because huge honey companies do not care about bees. I know its hard to believe that the individual consumer can make a difference, but if a majority of omnivores who are able to stop buying eggs and milk and honey from corporations and switch to products from small farms did so, it would make a much bigger impact than the very small (again i emphasize, VERY SMALL, like im convinced theres no more than 10 of us) vegan population doing something that goes against our principles. And again, the cruelty and environmental damage caused by factory farms is not the individual consumers fault or responsibility to fix, but buy local, if not to send a message to factory farms, then at least to support your local farmer, because their lives may depend on that income.

vegans who refuse to even eat backyard eggs….why

[lisbeibeth]

I am reblogging everything about bees and honey I find, especially since catching up on GBBO and hearing the old ‘agave nectar’ bullshit again. Really fricking irresponsible

“don’t eat honey because it exploits the bees and they can’t consent!!!” bees are literally unionized and will walk out if they don’t like being in the beekeeper’s hives

[i-am-a-furret]

The last sentence is what companies think will happen if worker unionize

“don’t eat honey because it exploits the bees and they can’t consent!!!” bees are literally unionized and will walk out if they don’t like being in the beekeeper’s hives