The film "more than honey"

[beepig]

Our local cinema gave a viewing of the film "more than honey" last night narrated by john hurt. If anyone has seen this film it would be interesting to hear your thoughts

 

[Nige.Coll]

i saw it.
left me with mixed emotions , i didn't like the way the bees were treated on the large scale bee farm.

 

[Martinreed]

Me too. At one point a commercial bee framer stands in a vast field of almonds where his bees were and says to camera 'Hear that sound?: Its the sound of money'. Depressing.

 

[Edwardking]

I thought it was excellent. A view of the harsh realities of commercial bee farming, some tough facts, top quality photography. For a commercial farmer the sound of bees is money. That's the way it is. The contrast to hobby beekeeping in Switzerland was neatly portrayed, though that too had its tough bits - foul brood gassing, killing a queen - and who hasn't had to do that?!

 

[davnig]

It is an excellent film, some great filming of the bees in the hive, not so convinced of the external shots - looked artificial as I'm sure they were.

Overall a very interesting and thought provoking film, shocking the way that bee farmer treated them though - wouldn't be allowed with any form of mammalian livestock

 

[domino]

Great looking film. Some people at work also saw it and it took me an hour to convince them we don't keep bees like that in the UK.

 

[fiftyjon]

I thought it was excellent. A view of the harsh realities of commercial bee farming, some tough facts, top quality photography. For a commercial farmer the sound of bees is money. That's the way it is. The contrast to hobby beekeeping in Switzerland was neatly portrayed, though that too had its tough bits - foul brood gassing, killing a queen - and who hasn't had to do that?!

The film certainly plays with the emotions and puts across the two ends of the spectrum for keeping bees. The photography was excellent.

 

[sipa]

A very good film, excellent photography.

The good thing was that you saw both ends of the beekeeping spectrum, that brings some realism.

Commercial beekeeping is big business in many parts of the world, and it's always good to highlight the gap between hobby and commercial farming, whatever the livestock species.

 

[Magwat]

I was alarmed to hear the almond grower effectively saying ' what can possibly go wrong with a monoculture' (I have recently been watching a TV series about The Dust Bowl).

 

[itma]

... some great filming of the bees in the hive, not so convinced of the external shots - looked artificial as I'm sure they were.
...

If anyone watched the film through to the closing titles, with the identically-lit bee flying off into the afternoon and then on, past the sunset, stars and moon, they might quite reasonably suspect that the 'flight' shots might just have been created with the aid of some "blue screen" technology ...

And I did wonder about the frame spacing used for the inside-hive shots!



I've been banging on for a while that US commercial beekeeping practices (and problems) are very very different from UK hobby beekeeping.
However, the number of times I get told about this or that 'easy' method that someone has seen in a US YouTube video ... gets annoying!
The lessons we should be learning from our colonial cousins are about how we should NOT do things!


Is it time now to start a movement to boycott Californian almonds?

 

[thurrock bees]

It is an excellent film, some great filming of the bees in the hive, not so convinced of the external shots - looked artificial as I'm sure they were.

Overall a very interesting and thought provoking film, shocking the way that bee farmer treated them though - wouldn't be allowed with any form of mammalian livestock

 

[blackie]

I have the dvd and it is excellent I have watched 3 times already and bought some blank dvds to copy it for some friends

 

[Edwardking]

I have the dvd and it is excellent I have watched 3 times already and bought some blank dvds to copy it for some friends

Is that legal?

 

[davnig]

Is that legal?

nope, but we all blur the lines somewhere along the journey of life

 

[pargyle]

Anyone near Gosport can see the film at a screening on 1st April by Gosport and Fareham Friends of the Earth ... free entry but a donation suggested.

 

[beepig]

interesting responce from many of you. I am sure many of you are experienced bee keepers. I watched the film feeling many different emotions as well, my biggest concern however, was with the genitic manipulation of bees, queen breeding and again manipulation and the desire or control of many hives, that i feel are more for mans liking than the bees.
I am of course a novice in Bee keeping but feel that mans manipulation has a defined and definate effect on bee populations.
I am aware however, that i might be also talking complete bollocks
I shall pursue the wilder side myself.
I liked the Australian approach

 

[Edwardking]

interesting responce from many of you. I am sure many of you are experienced bee keepers. I watched the film feeling many different emotions as well, my biggest concern however, was with the genitic manipulation of bees, queen breeding and again manipulation and the desire or control of many hives, that i feel are more for mans liking than the bees.
I am of course a novice in Bee keeping but feel that mans manipulation has a defined and definate effect on bee populations.
I am aware however, that i might be also talking complete bollocks
I shall pursue the wilder side myself.
I liked the Australian approach

Some bad news for you - there is no 'wilder side' these days - there's too many diseases and problems to let the bees live wild. And on a related point - I don't want disease-riddled drones infecting my healthy bees - the drones will pass everything they carry onto them. If you don't care, medicate, clean, then your bees will die, and quickly.

 

[davnig]

Some bad news for you - there is no 'wilder side' these days - there's too many diseases and problems to let the bees live wild. And on a related point - I don't want disease-riddled drones infecting my healthy bees - the drones will pass everything they carry onto them. If you don't care, medicate, clean, then your bees will die, and quickly.

If you keep bees in any sort of box, on frames, even top bars, then you're doing it for your convenience not the bees.

I don't think natural beekeeping exists - if you do any form of intervention it's not natural, if you don't intervene you're a bee watcher not a keeper!

Having said that I try and 'keep' my bees for their benefit as much as mine; I don't want lots of honey or wax (lovely as it all is) I just enjoy the bees - but even that affects them so whichever way you look at it's pretty selfish really

 

[Cie]

I shall pursue the wilder side myself.

Good luck. There are more and more people exploring this way of beekeeping, and the handful of 10 years ago is expanding rapidly. Of course, resistance from the old guard is strong as you have seen; but don't let that put you off finding your own way.

Just because you choose not to pull your hive apart every week, for all the benefits that come with the less invasive way, it doesn't mean that you're not a beekeeper. But you should expect derisive comments when in the company of those that use bees for honey farming.

 

[Hivemaker.]

But you should expect derisive comments when in the company of those that use bees for honey farming.

A rather sweeping statement.