Beekeepers don't intentionally harm bees when harvesting honey. No, harvesting honey and taking it away from bees is not bad, either morally or otherwise. Bees are able to adapt to the loss of honey resources and, more importantly, good beekeepers make sure to leave enough honey in the hive for colony survival. Agriculture includes the production of both plants and animals.
Beekeeping is part of agriculture. It serves human demand for food. Honey is a nutritious food that humans cannot produce. The desire to consume honey has led to the rise of beekeeping, an art that has been practiced for many centuries.
In beekeeping, honey is just one of the few products harvested from hives, and the others are beeswax, propolis and royal jelly. Each beehive product is used for different purposes and applications, and each product is sustainably harvested. Harvesting honey doesn't anger or hurt bees, unless you're greedy and drink too much. When done correctly, bees don't bother when honey is harvested.
Responsible beekeepers always leave enough honey for the hive. And while it's not normal for bees to get irritated when you collect honey, there may be factors that cause aggression in bees. Is harvesting honey bad for bees? In most cases, harvesting honey is not bad for bees. Due to their hoarding instincts, bees often take excess pollen from nearby flowers and, as a result, produce more honey than they actually need.
They also produce honey non-stop during the times when they are active. This leaves a huge surplus for beekeepers to take without endangering honey bees. Too much or too little honey, as well as honey made from pollen collected from chemically fertilized crops, can affect the survival and reproduction chances of bees. Due to their hoarding instinct, bees often take excess pollen from nearby flowers and consequently produce more honey than they actually need.
When honey is harvested, bees are used to going through the escape boards and return freely to the hive safely. We know that honey is one of the most splendid healthy foods, as well as a great source of income for beekeepers. Another tactic implemented by large-scale beekeepers is to cut off the wings of the queen bee to prevent swarming, thus ensuring that honey production does not decrease. This centrifugation process causes honey to accumulate on the bottom, which can then be drained into a container or bucket.
Chemical pesticides and fungicides are strongly discouraged, as they can also kill bees and make honey unfit for consumption. Several bees, who make up about half or more of the colony, move with a new queen to start a new honey bee colony. Honey is harvested continuously from mid-July to mid-September (before winter) in most regions of the U.S. UU.
Cal Orey has a great book on the healing properties of honey that includes many recipes and remedies. This is usually done through the use of a honey extractor that will allow you to use several frames at once. All in all, it's good to support conservation beekeepers who are dedicated to keeping bees without harvesting honey.
