The honeybee, partner or slave?

My recent post here concerning our discovery that some of the "natural" honey we had been buying was in fact not natural (the bees are fed sugar) has generated some interest among readers. I have received email asking more on the topic, enough so that perhaps a followup post is in order.

A common practice among conventional beekeepers (even those selling natural honey) is to harvest all the honey produced by the bees and feed sugar in it's place. The common belief being that sugar and honey are identical and fine for bees to live on.

To help understand the choices being made behind the scenes, here are the three basic scenarios possible in beekeeping:

1. Harvest 100% of produced honey throughout the year when it is ready
2. Harvest 100% of produced honey once a year
3. Harvest honey throughout the year at times when production is high, leaving enough honey or enough time to replace the honey until the next production period. 

options 1 and 2 require feeding of sugar, because there are periods of time when the bees have lost their entire feed store. Remember that bees produce honey not intentionally for other animals or man, but for their own survival. honey is the natural food for bees during non-nectar months. Without honey or a suitable replacement, they die from starvation. 

the difference between 1 and 2 is frequency and affect on the finished product. in #1 honey is harvested whenever it is ready, and it if hat happens to be when there is no nectar flowing the bees are fed sugar water as a replacement until they can find nectar/pollen  to live on. The feeding of sugar allows some straight sugar to get into the honey in much the same way that pollen and nectar do. The finished product during these times is not pure natural honey, it is honey contaminated with sugar. This is unavoidable during these times. The only difference between 1 and 2 is that 2 happens once a year, 1 happens multiple times a year. In wither case the is either periods of time or percentages of honey that contain traces of sugar. 

option 3 is a partnership with the bees. Only the "excess" production is taken so that the bees live year round on the natural food they are intended to eat. When weather is good, plants thrive, nectar flows..honey production goes up and the careful beekeeper takes advantage of these times to properly harvest only the excess. 

Why does this all matter?  well.. there are two aspects to the problem.. the quality of the product and the health of the bees. 

For honey to be labeled "Natural" I believe it should be produced naturally.. from bees that are living in in their natural environment. No bees in nature have access to sugar water. Sugar in itself is a completely unnatural product, since sugar is evaporated cane juice (at best). Where do you see pools of evaporated cane juice in nature? It simply doesn't exist. sugar itself is a man made product produced by separating a natural plant into pieces and discarded the undesirable pieces (fiber). Only those foods occurring in nature can be truly considered natural. sugar simply is not.  Therefore honey produced by bees fed sugar can not be considered natural honey. In farming the feed makes the product, and in this case the feed is nothing but a man mad processed food substitute. 

The other major issue is the health of the bees themselves. Anyone that believes sugar water is equivalent to honey is sadly misinformed. Honey is a fermented product full of beneficial nutrients and substances. sugar water is.. well.. a man made processed food substitute devoid of nutrition. To deny the difference in health for bees between the two foods is just foolish. Perhaps if bees were allowed to live on their natural feed, the colony health problems in bees would be lessor or non-extent. how we can feed processed foods to bees and expect them to maintain health ? 

Perhaps an even bigger issue is respect for God's creation. Farming is not about profit, it is about a harmonious balance between man and animal and God's creation. When man is motivated by profit, the balance is thrown off and something suffers. Think for a minute from the bee;s point of view. the beekeeper that takes only the excess of good times is working in partnership with bees. The bees get protection, place to live, oversight, etc. and the beekeeper gets the excess honey produced.  On the other hand you have the situation where the bees are kept for production only, forced to eat cheap unnatural foods that barely keep them alive.  all of the fruits of their labor are taken by the keepers. This is not a partnership.. this is slavery. Are god's creatures due any less respect than any other creatures? Is slavery warranted on animals that produce food for us as the earth's keepers?  

Perhaps this seems extreme, but it is the basis of why we do what we do here at little sprouts farm.  Respect for God's creatures is important, as is health, and product quality.  Neither of these should be compromised in the search of personal profits.