Yes, your local hobbyist beekeeper can provide you with higher quality honey. Ask them what methods they use to combat mites, foul brood and other diseases that plague bees and threaten their very existence. These diseases are the result of human's keeping bees commercially and transporting them.

My work has beehives. Just an office with some land.

Exactly. Getting real sick of people saying that we need to eat honey to save the bees. No one gives a f**k about the bees that actually need saving because that would involve acknowledging that honeybees are actually the problem.

Obviously you have no clue, maybe find a vegan page and find out why they think like they do.

They can't control what may be underfoot but they can control what goes down their throats. It is a bit like the AA prayer. It does take self awareness to maintain balance between the world and the self. Or else we either become apathetic or neurotic

No, idiots who don't have a clue about bees let their bees die. Professionals take good care of their bees.

no, it's because bee's need the honey to survive and it's not ours to take, also it's an animal product and they do not eat ANY animal product. A lot of bee keepers take very good care of their bees. that's great. just leave them their honey.

We are omnivores. Period. Not taking from animals is against our very nature as human animals. Do you condemn a lion for taking down a gazelle? Of course not (unless you're completely ignorant). Most of us should eat a lot less meat because its not good for our health to eat as much as most people do, but this childish/naive belief system about "not taking from animals" is utterly stupid.

Olive oil is environmentally bad, according to a lot of vegans. So yes, it’s vegan.

If animal cruelty is irrelevant, then sorry, but vegans are actually assholes. I don't really care about the definition at this point, if that's the mindset involved. I guess this explains why things like agave nectar as a replacement for honey and processed sugars are so popular, despite agave harvesting depriving bats of a primary food source.

Sorry but according to that logic plants should not be vegan either. And there is no reason to be insulting here.

Then those bee keepers are doing a bad job. Bees do need the honey to survive, but the keepers take only the excess. If you have happy, healthy bees, they will make a good surplus. If being vegan means not doing harm to any animal, vegans should be against things like agave nectar, which, when harvested, often deprives bats of a vital food source. Bees are not being harmed by the majority of beekeeping, sorry.

bees literally produce more than they need. They have reserves. Sure good bee keepers feed them additionally. But that mostly happens when a hive shows signs of failing health or when the temperatures are not in their favour. A hive is it's own eco system and needs certain conditions to thrive. Feeding them doesn't mean a bee keeper took all their honey...smh

The upside is that wild bees are not decimated by the diseases. The downside is wild bees do not produce much honey, their colonies are very small in population, they make only a tiny amount of honey, they can not pollinate the large, commercial orchards and crops that sustain humans.

I have no idea where you got that information but it sounds like a load of garbage to me. I know a beekeeper, and can tell you that removing honey from hives does not kill bees. Beekeepers DO NOT WANT TO KILL their bees, therefore they are very careful when removing honeycomb from the hive. And, when they do crush the was to extract the honey from the honeycomb, they remove all of the bees from the wax first, by brushing them off or etc. In other words, none of the bees should get crushed or smashed as you put it, because they have been removed first. And, even in a commercial situation I can't imagine beekeepers would be that clumsy and not careful, because again, they do not want to kill the bees. If they kill all their bees, how are they going to keep selling honey? Seriously, PLEASE STOP spreading misinformation about beekeeping and the process of removing honeycomb fro hives!

You obviously have absolutely NO idea how honey is harvested and NO, honey isn't pasteurized for consuming. My father is a beekeeper and NO bees are killed during harvesting and NO pasteurizing.... What a load of c...p.

Thanks for this info. Unfortunately, all agricultural products (eg, grains, legumes, beans, vegetables) can and do contain some bug pieces. Don't Google it if it grosses you out. It's part of life on earth.

This... sorry for my language, but this is bullshit. You can take a honey comb out of a hive, hold in in your hands for minutes and simply remove the bees from it carefully. We don't just go and squash the bees to get the comb. Also: bees are very clean. Should a bee die, no matter if its a worker, queen or a drone, the bodies don't get stuck in the honeycombs, they follow gravity and FALL to the bottom of the hive From there, they get exposed of aka thrown out. A bee hive is very sensitive to temperatures (as in: very warm) so depending on the temperature, bees clean out any carcasses very efficiently.

I've watched beekeepers on Youtube remove entire colonies by hand from trashcans and under trailers and all manner of other places without hurting a single bee. Sorry, but you're wrong.

My father kept bees and rarely did any bees get maimed or killed through the process of collecting and extracting honey. There are between 20-80k bees living in a hive and through careful handling (which is in the beekeeper's best interest) there are very few bee casualties... The wax frames that are added to beehives form the foundation of the building of hexagonal cells by the bees... sugar water is also added to the hives to allow them to survive hibernation. Considering the process by which various types of sugars are produced- and their detrimental environmental impact- vegans should probably avoid sugar more than honey(or just avoid sweeteners altogether).