Is possible to be cruel to Honey Bees

[SimonP]

You can most deffinately be cruel to insects. If any mistratment leads to death, surely this must be cruelty.

 

[jaynie]

When i was little, the boy next door used to like pulling the wings off bees - now that was cruel.
As a newbee, I ponder ...... are bees more susceptable to disease because we take their lovely honey and feed them cheap nasty sugar instead? ....If i'd spent all day cooking up something lovely, and someone swooped down and nicked it and dropped me a bigmac instead, I'd be a little bit annoyed!
How did bees ever manage to look after themselves for millions of years before we came along!!!!? poor little things LOL

 

[For want of a better word]

When i was little, the boy next door used to like pulling the wings off bees - now that was cruel.
As a newbee, I ponder ...... are bees more susceptable to disease because we take their lovely honey and feed them cheap nasty sugar instead? ....If i'd spent all day cooking up something lovely, and someone swooped down and nicked it and dropped me a bigmac instead, I'd be a little bit annoyed!
How did bees ever manage to look after themselves for millions of years before we came along!!!!? poor little things LOL

IMO feeding a BigMac to any living thing is tantamount to cruelty of the most gross kind!!

 

[jaynie]

IMO feeding a BigMac to any living thing is tantamount to cruelty of the most gross kind!!

Especially if you're a lil ol' veggie like me!
but I have to put my hands up and say...
i might be cruel to varroa and cat fleas, and does eating live (soya) yoghurt count?
perhaps we are all thinking too hard, anyone having a party?

 

[Onge]

When i was little, the boy next door used to like pulling the wings off bees - now that was cruel.
As a newbee, I ponder ...... are bees more susceptable to disease because we take their lovely honey and feed them cheap nasty sugar instead? ....If i'd spent all day cooking up something lovely, and someone swooped down and nicked it and dropped me a bigmac instead, I'd be a little bit annoyed!
How did bees ever manage to look after themselves for millions of years before we came along!!!!? poor little things LOL

I winter my bees on the honey they collect.

I only remove the excess from there wintering needs.

I also would not give anyone a big mac, thats cruel.

 

[pedroz]

yes it is possible, but why be cruel?

 

[GoEnviro]

I agree way too many options and no definition of cruelty.

They dont come under the Animal Welfare Act but I do believe you can be prosecuted for damaging a hive thru the careless use of poison, but that may just be a civil claim(? not sure of terminology try to keep clear of the law)

 

[victor meldrew]

They dont come under the Animal Welfare Act but I do believe you can be prosecuted for damaging a hive thru the careless use of poison, but that may just be a civil claim(? not sure of terminology try to keep clear of the law)

There was a case in point not too long ago in Morecambe of a young 'lady' being prosecuted for cruelty to shrimps ! She (whilst employed in the potted shrimp industry) thought it hilarious to drop live shirmps onto a hot-plate and watch them writhe!!!. She was found guilty, convicted but I can't recall the sentence meted out !
VM

 

[Hivemaker.]

There was a case in point not too long ago in Morecambe of a young 'lady' being prosecuted for cruelty to shrimps ! She (whilst employed in the potted shrimp industry) thought it hilarious to drop live shirmps onto a hot-plate and watch them writhe!!!. She was found guilty, convicted but I can't recall the sentence meted out !
VM

Expect she was given 150 hours community service and banned from cooking shrimps for ten years.

 

[mbc]

Expect she was given 150 hours community service and banned from cooking shrimps for ten years.

150 hours of community service ridding local reservoirs of invasive shrimp species ?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11246642

 

[aljac]

Is possible to be cruel to honey bees

Bees and people probably experience events differently. Can a bee experience pain or discomfort? I think so. Does a bee fear death? Maybe not. Can a person deliberately act to distress bees (cruelty).? I think so. Can a person who cares for bees, accidently or unknowly cause severe distress to bees? I think so, but this is not a deliberate act of cruelty.

 

[victor meldrew]

At the risk of repeating myself, (this is an old thread) ,my take on this ,is that the concept of cruelty is a human and possibly higher life forms ability ! Nature isn' cruel neither is it kind ! it is indifferent !
The cat toying with a mouse isn't getting any sadistic pleasure from the act but merely sharpening its abilities to be successful in its hunting in order to survive .
Bees themselves indulge in (what appears in human eyes)to be the most cruel and abominable , wanton acts in order to survive ! Culling of drones, robbing , shunting old workers into forming beards outside entrance at the end of the active period., eating eggs/brood ,in times of dearth . All these in the quest for survival with no finer thoughts involved.
Now back to the original question .
Yes it is possible to be cruel to bees, not that the bees will perceive that which we do as cruel ! We have the power to use/abuse bees at our will and therefore (being equipped with the concept of cruelty) follow our consciences regarding the treatment of them .
We can afford to be KIND, they cannot!
Do we exploit bees? Yes we do but we also nurture , protect and provide for they even though our motives may not be entirely altruistic
VM

 

[Ely]

Cruelty. Is a human condition. If you are a cruel person, you can carry out that cruelty on just about anything. Wether a bee is consiously aware of that cruelty is another matter. They don't have the same nevous system or consiousness as a human though so it is pointless projecting how we would feel.

It took countless millions of years of evolution to develop our human brain. If an insect is capable of thought, has a concience or even knows it is alive, why was this evolution necessary? It is laughable that insects can be anymore than bits of biological matter running on nervous twitches and instincts if you think about it. They simply do not have the synapses

 

[Little John]

At the risk of repeating myself, (this is an old thread) ,my take on this ,is that the concept of cruelty is a human and possibly higher life forms ability ! Nature isn' cruel neither is it kind ! it is indifferent !

?

Indifference is as much a human construct (or hypostasized metaphysical abstraction, if you prefer), as cruelty.
It therefore follows that you cannot say - and with such certainty - that 'Nature' (which is yet another human construct) is 'indifferent', no more than you can say it is 'cruel' or 'kind' or anything else for that matter.

The existence of a detached objectivity to which you appear to be alluding is one of the more dangerous myths to have emerged from our scientific age. Peter Medawar's article "Is the scientific paper a fraud?" - from the 1960's - expands upon this erroneous line of thinking.

LJ

 

[REDWOOD]

Work is cruel but my boss thinks we are not working hard enough, I would like the job of the lottery winner who said "I will not give up my day job", are there such jobs ? ... except for beekeeping.

 

[Ely]

Work is cruel but my boss thinks we are not working hard enough, I would like the job of the lottery winner who said "I will not give up my day job", are there such jobs ? ... except for beekeeping.

Pornstar

 

[mbc]

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21665

cruel ?

 

[REDWOOD]

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21665

cruel ?

 

[Vergilius]

Beekeepers cruel to other animals for the benefit of their bees.

Apologies for going off topic... We cannot forget that other animals have suffered over the years for our desire for bees to succeed... From that great beekeeper, Mr Virgil... A translation of one of my favourite passages from his Georgics:

"But if someone’s whole brood has suddenly failed,
and he has no stock from which to recreate a new line,
then it’s time to reveal the famous invention of Aristaeus,
the Arcadian master, and the method by which in the past
the adulterated blood of dead bullocks has generated bees.
I will tell the whole story in depth, tracing it from its first origins.
Where the fortunate peoples of Pellaean Canopus live
by the overflowing waters of the flooded Nile,
and sail around their fields in painted boats,
where the closeness of the Persian bowmen oppresses them,
and where the river’s flow splits, in seven distinct mouths,
enriching green Egypt with its black silt,
the river that has flowed down from the dark Ethiopians,
all in that country depend on this sure stratagem.
First they choose a narrow place, small enough for this purpose:
they enclose it with a confined roof of tiles, walls close together,
and add four slanting window lights facing the four winds.
Then they search out a bullock, just jutting his horns out
of a two year olds forehead: the breath from both its nostrils
and its mouth is stifled despite its struggles: it’s beaten to death,
and its flesh pounded to a pulp through the intact hide.
They leave it lying like this in prison, and strew broken branches
under its flanks, thyme and fresh rosemary.
This is done when the Westerlies begin to stir the waves
before the meadows brighten with their new colours,
before the twittering swallow hangs her nest from the eaves.
Meanwhile the moisture, warming in the softened bone, ferments,
and creatures, of a type marvellous to see, swarm together,
without feet at first, but soon with whirring wings as well,
and more and more try the clear air, until they burst out,
like rain pouring from summer clouds,
or arrows from the twanging bows,
whenever the lightly-armed Parthians first join battle."

Barbaric eh... Virgil's not the only one who advocates it though - on Virgil's authority, the practice, originating from the Aristaeus myth, was widely upheld to be fact until well into the middle ages.

Indeed, of all the many Roman authors who commentate on bees and beekeeping, it is only Columella - a prose author, who wrote his twelve book De Re Rustica - who remarks that "though there may be some truth in the theory, it is probably not economically feasible to slaughter cattle for the sake of a few swarms of bees..."

Highly amusing. Ancient texts on beekeeping are full of this stuff.

Ben P

 

[rayz_x]

From the Animal Welfare Act 2006...

"(3)The appropriate national authority may by regulations for all or any of the purposes of this Act— .
(a)extend the definition of “animal” so as to include invertebrates of any description; ..."

The Act could be extended easily to species such as bees. Surprising foresight for lawmakers?

Ray