[pacoughlin]

Hi, y'all! I'm very (very) new to beekeeping, and I'm super interested in the environmental impacts of beekeeping, but I have a question pertaining to something I saw on social media a while back. Are honey bees really the answer to "saving the bees"? I understand honey bees are one of the biggest contributors to pollination, but would the pollinator world at large benefit from a more egalitarian approach to beekeeping? Additionally, does anyone know/have thoughts on whether it'd more advantageous to have a social movement away from traditional lawns toward pro-pollinator gardens?

Sorry if this is a lot, but these are questions I've had for a while now.

 

[Wil]

Welcome to the forum.
Sure, why not? Hence my desire to also raise Mason and Leafcutter bees besides my Honeybees for an example. Being boarder line diabetic, I am surely not in it for the honey nor do I even care to make a profit on the honey. At the moment, with only having 7 hives, I am more interested in seeing them all make it through the upcoming winter in good health and free to go out to pollinate and forage again. I don't know how old you are but I can remember back when I was a kid that I could not walk in the grass without getting stung by a honeybee. Those were rare moments as I got much older and not even seeing a honeybee. At least as beekeepers, we are contributing. All pollinators have my respects.

 

[Richard Swanson]

This is for Wil,
Have you tested your glucose before and after use of honey?
Last year, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I had one of those Libre things in my arm. I found that my use of honey did not affect my glucose.

 

[Wil]

This is for Wil,
Have you tested your glucose before and after use of honey?
Last year, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I had one of those Libre things in my arm. I found that my use of honey did not affect my glucose.

Thanks for addressing this. I do monitor my glucose but so far I have been told by my Veterans Administration doctor to take a reading in the morning and then 2 hours after my biggest meal in the evening. It runs anywhere from 105 to 110 in the morning to 115 to 125 in the evening. I am supposed to do this twice a week. I never thought about checking before and after eating honey.

 

[Rick_Bee]

"Saving the Bees" Is a feel good social/political reach around.
There is an elephant in the room.
The way to save the bees is to stop migratory pollination practices.
Commercial bee breeding has gotten us where we are, the genetics of a few are influencing the genetics of the entire continent via migratory practices.
Floridian and Hawaiian bees can be found in the Upper Peninsula, WTF? That would never happen in nature.
Small time Beekeepers are learning to fight this with selective breeding of their own stocks.
Don't get caught up in the grass is greener syndrome, you will never have PERFECT bees.
Nurture the colonies you have that do well and cull/re-queen the rest (they are a waste of gear).
Saving a mite bomb is saving for a repeat performance down the line (insanity), that line of bees needs to end.

 

[roadkillbobb]

This is for Wil,
Have you tested your glucose before and after use of honey?
Last year, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I had one of those Libre things in my arm. I found that my use of honey did not affect my glucose.

natural sugars from nature react different in your body than processed sugars, I always had elevated sugar levels along with my mom, I was also a big sweet tooth eater, one doctor said to use artificial sweeteners instead of processed sugar and I said I was using honey in my coffee and he said its still sugar ( I dont trust or like doctors, but thats another story)..I told him I can manage or live with diabetes, I am not a diabetic, but I cant live with cancer that the artificial sweeteners bring..
I test my sugar levels just for curiosity when I eat different foods...
try some real maple syrup and then test your blood sugar, it should react like the honey and real maple syrup has a bunch of health benefits, doesnt mean you can drink a cup of the stuff, but its much healthier than any processed sugar....

 

[roadkillbobb]

"Saving the Bees" Is a feel good social/political reach around.
There is an elephant in the room.
The way to save the bees is to stop migratory pollination practices.
Commercial bee breeding has gotten us where we are, the genetics of a few are influencing the genetics of the entire continent via migratory practices.
Floridian and Hawaiian bees can be found in the Upper Peninsula, WTF? That would never happen in nature.
Small time Beekeepers are learning to fight this with selective breeding of their own stocks.
Don't get caught up in the grass is greener syndrome, you will never have PERFECT bees.
Nurture the colonies you have that do well and cull/re-queen the rest (they are a waste of gear).
Saving a mite bomb is saving for a repeat performance down the line (insanity), that line of bees needs to end.

this is not only with bees, if you look at are whole food supply, cows, pigs, chickens etc have all been bred into 1 or 2 types and that is a recipe for disaster if disease hits the breed..they have gotten rid of heirloom breeds on any large scale, so all the animals are basically genetically the same, in each cataglory, they did the same with veggies...if a fungus or plant disease hits it can take out every tomato, carrot or whatever else is planted...diversity is gone and seems all the food supply in each cataglory is designed to grow fast and be shelf stable for a long time and being healthy is far down on the list...
just look at all the chickens and pigs killed off because they all got the same diseases that swept through the farms...no different than whats happening with commercial bees..they are all genetically related and are vulnerable to a single disease to wipe them out..
whenever humans mess with nature we screw it up...

 

[josianecanadian]

Yes, I also started raising bees out of a desire to support the environment. I read so many articles and books. So it was easy enough for me to build my first hive, put the bees there, and take care of the queen bee. This is where I found everything I needed to do https://mygarden101.com/how-to-raise-honeybees-in-your-self-sufficiency-and-garden/. In fact, I've been dreaming about it for a long time. When I was 8 years old, my godfather took me to his bee farm. He put a hazmat suit on me, and we went from hive to hive together, lifting the covers and checking on the bees. Then we cleaned it, and it seemed like the most interesting and fun thing in the world. And everything smelled really good. So I fell in love with it from such a young age. Good luck to you, newbie!