4 ms·

In a way, beekeeping is stealing nectar from wild bees. I pretty much never see wild bees in my garden anymore - they're all honey bees, and usually some human

In a way, beekeeping is stealing nectar from wild bees. I pretty much never see wild bees in my garden anymore - they're all honey bees, and usually some human is keeping/farming them - effectively stealing nectar from my garden and that of thousands of my neighbours that we had left out for wild animals.

4gotunameagain 3y ago
Stealing is a weird choice of words. Do you steal the oxygen that you breathe, or the water that you drink ? For it to reach your tap, it has been stolen by some fish's lake
- blueflow 3y ago
  Wait until they realize bees do all that work without a profit incentive!
  - mmmmmmtoes 3y ago
    They do?
- distances 3y ago
  The parent has a point, though I never thought about it that way. In a way a similar case would be if you had a squad of squirrels that gather seeds and nuts from your neighbour's gardens, and you would then take and sell the bounty that they bring back.
  - mike_richards 3y ago
    If the bees are in a man made hive they need you to remove honey so that they have room to lay. If you don't they will leave and not all of that honey is going with them.
    - cryptonector 3y ago
      Eh, it's not quite that simple. Honeybees produce more honey than they need for several reasons, mainly that a) they are natural hoarders, b) we've bred them to hoard even more. It's true that colonies can become pollen-bound and/or nectar-/honey-bound, and thus have too little space for brood. When this happens it's very likely that the colony will swarm off, leaving behind as few as 20% or so of the bees behind, as well as and swarm cells from which one victorious queen will emerge, and then the rump colony will have plenty of honey while it's weak and recovering its numbers. During that time they'll consume whatever it was they had too much of and thus make room for brood.
      - mike_richards 3y ago
        Yes, and you will have happy neighbors... I do understand that the natural reproduction cycle isn't quite that simple. However for "normal" operation some removal is beneficial and not "stealing", so long as they have adequate supplies.
        cryptonector 3y ago
        Not only that, but what beekeepers do is give the colony more room as it fills the hive with honey. The bees don't realize they have enough and just gather more and more, thus ending up with a large surplus that the beekeeper is happy to harvest.
    - distances 3y ago
      The neighbour example is about wild critters getting the harvest from your own yard vs. your neighbour running a farming operation and keeping the proceeds.
- Modified3019 3y ago
  The nectar and pollen that flowers produce is in fact a limited resource, both in quantity and in time available. Honeybees have the capability of depleting such resources because they are far more active than they actually need to be, which is one of the reasons we use them for crops with very high densities of flowers, like blueberries. They are efficient and thorough enough to get the job done. There are times of the year (in particular, late summer/fall) where good flowers are especially hard to come by, and so solitary bees can have trouble trying to compete against a hive in the area when they are trying to gather the resources they need to reproduce. Meanwhile a hive also has honey stored so dips in availability during the year matter much less.
- funcantor 3y ago
  Sir, please stop stealing my internet
  - Tagbert 3y ago
    "stealing the nectar" is more like saying that you are stealing the webpages of websites.
laputan_machine 3y ago
Interesting, I only ever see wild solitary bees in my (UK) garden.
meerita 3y ago
And bees steal the polen and the nectar from flowers.
- Tagbert 3y ago
  Bees and flowers have a commensel relationship where the flowers provide nectar and some pollen to the bees in exchange for distribution of the flower's pollen for fertilization. The bees aren't "stealing" anything. That nectar has no purpose to the plant if it doesn't attract pollinators. Of course neither the bees nor the flowers are conscious of this relationship or their roles in it as it evolved naturally from the natures of both plants and insects.
- will5421 3y ago
  Bees steal nectar, not pollen, but in exchange the flower reproduces
  - pvaldes 3y ago
    People take honey, but in exchange bees receive a few things 1) Pillbox Housing. Expensive beehive, made from metal and wood, and with only a few narrow entries easy to defend. 2) Comfort. In a quiet sunny place without loud music or sounds. A lid protecting from rain and storms and walls able to stand winds guarantee a dry and warm inner area. A lot of clean wax combs ready to be occupied with minimum effort and a structure to put each comb apart exactly how bees like it. 3) Free medical care. Provided by the species with the most advanced medicine known in the universe. 4) Free emergency help. Including extra food rations in winter and beehive rescue in case of wildfire or flood 5) Bodyguard services. Anti bear stone walls, Anti-wasp electric fences and Bee-eater deterrents if needed. Banners against human trespassers and regulation discouraging thieves. 8) Holidays. Free vehicle transport to visit fields in bloom exactly in the be-est touristic season. 9) Dating services at intercontinental level 10) All you can eat buffet. Gardens designed specifically and seeded with the best international selection of premium nectar. 11) Water sources and ponds to drink
    - lukas099 3y ago
mike_richards 3y ago
It may have to do with the flowers you have in your yard. I have a beehive and a large number and diversity of native pollinators, but I plant to attract and support them.
khazhoux 3y ago
> In a way, beekeeping is stealing nectar from wild bees. Congrats! You've independently discovered the plot of Bee Movie, spawner of one million memes.
cryptonector 3y ago
I have every kind of wild local pollinator on my flowers as well my honeybees: wild solitary bees, wasps, butterflies, and hummingbird moths.
mrweasel 3y ago
This is completely anecdotally but keeping honey bees in my garden appeared to attract a large number of wild bees, like bumblebees, ground nesting and solitary bees. Part of it might be that I've attempted to great an good environment for my own bees, part of it might also simply be that I notice bees a lot more. Commercial beekeepers are a different story, but they mostly place their apiaries in areas where wild bees couldn't possibly manage to cover the entire area anyway, like fields. One issue that might be at play in your case is that types of bees beekeepers normally keep are way better at dealing with pesticides, as compared to bumblebees and solitary bees. Your neighbors might be going a bit heavy on the spraying and some might actively be destroying the nests of ground nesting bees out of fear. For a few weeks each year my sidewalk is alive with ground nesting bees, while just a few meters away everything is fuck dead, because a stupid neighbor is allergic to bees and wasp and assumes that every bee is going to kill him (he doesn't keep an epi-pen so I question the seriousness of his affliction), so he sprays pretty much all sidewalks around here, except mine.

4gotunameagain 3y ago

Stealing is a weird choice of words. Do you steal the oxygen that you breathe, or the water that you drink ? For it to reach your tap, it has been stolen by some fish's lake

blueflow 3y ago
Wait until they realize bees do all that work without a profit incentive!
- mmmmmmtoes 3y ago
  They do?
distances 3y ago
The parent has a point, though I never thought about it that way. In a way a similar case would be if you had a squad of squirrels that gather seeds and nuts from your neighbour's gardens, and you would then take and sell the bounty that they bring back.
- mike_richards 3y ago
  If the bees are in a man made hive they need you to remove honey so that they have room to lay. If you don't they will leave and not all of that honey is going with them.
  - cryptonector 3y ago
    Eh, it's not quite that simple. Honeybees produce more honey than they need for several reasons, mainly that a) they are natural hoarders, b) we've bred them to hoard even more. It's true that colonies can become pollen-bound and/or nectar-/honey-bound, and thus have too little space for brood. When this happens it's very likely that the colony will swarm off, leaving behind as few as 20% or so of the bees behind, as well as and swarm cells from which one victorious queen will emerge, and then the rump colony will have plenty of honey while it's weak and recovering its numbers. During that time they'll consume whatever it was they had too much of and thus make room for brood.
    - mike_richards 3y ago
      Yes, and you will have happy neighbors... I do understand that the natural reproduction cycle isn't quite that simple. However for "normal" operation some removal is beneficial and not "stealing", so long as they have adequate supplies.
      - cryptonector 3y ago
        Not only that, but what beekeepers do is give the colony more room as it fills the hive with honey. The bees don't realize they have enough and just gather more and more, thus ending up with a large surplus that the beekeeper is happy to harvest.
  - distances 3y ago
    The neighbour example is about wild critters getting the harvest from your own yard vs. your neighbour running a farming operation and keeping the proceeds.
Modified3019 3y ago
The nectar and pollen that flowers produce is in fact a limited resource, both in quantity and in time available. Honeybees have the capability of depleting such resources because they are far more active than they actually need to be, which is one of the reasons we use them for crops with very high densities of flowers, like blueberries. They are efficient and thorough enough to get the job done. There are times of the year (in particular, late summer/fall) where good flowers are especially hard to come by, and so solitary bees can have trouble trying to compete against a hive in the area when they are trying to gather the resources they need to reproduce. Meanwhile a hive also has honey stored so dips in availability during the year matter much less.
funcantor 3y ago
Sir, please stop stealing my internet
- Tagbert 3y ago
  "stealing the nectar" is more like saying that you are stealing the webpages of websites.

laputan_machine 3y ago

Interesting, I only ever see wild solitary bees in my (UK) garden.

meerita 3y ago

And bees steal the polen and the nectar from flowers.

Tagbert 3y ago
Bees and flowers have a commensel relationship where the flowers provide nectar and some pollen to the bees in exchange for distribution of the flower's pollen for fertilization. The bees aren't "stealing" anything. That nectar has no purpose to the plant if it doesn't attract pollinators. Of course neither the bees nor the flowers are conscious of this relationship or their roles in it as it evolved naturally from the natures of both plants and insects.
will5421 3y ago
Bees steal nectar, not pollen, but in exchange the flower reproduces
- pvaldes 3y ago
  People take honey, but in exchange bees receive a few things 1) Pillbox Housing. Expensive beehive, made from metal and wood, and with only a few narrow entries easy to defend. 2) Comfort. In a quiet sunny place without loud music or sounds. A lid protecting from rain and storms and walls able to stand winds guarantee a dry and warm inner area. A lot of clean wax combs ready to be occupied with minimum effort and a structure to put each comb apart exactly how bees like it. 3) Free medical care. Provided by the species with the most advanced medicine known in the universe. 4) Free emergency help. Including extra food rations in winter and beehive rescue in case of wildfire or flood 5) Bodyguard services. Anti bear stone walls, Anti-wasp electric fences and Bee-eater deterrents if needed. Banners against human trespassers and regulation discouraging thieves. 8) Holidays. Free vehicle transport to visit fields in bloom exactly in the be-est touristic season. 9) Dating services at intercontinental level 10) All you can eat buffet. Gardens designed specifically and seeded with the best international selection of premium nectar. 11) Water sources and ponds to drink
  - lukas099 3y ago

mike_richards 3y ago

It may have to do with the flowers you have in your yard. I have a beehive and a large number and diversity of native pollinators, but I plant to attract and support them.

khazhoux 3y ago

> In a way, beekeeping is stealing nectar from wild bees. Congrats! You've independently discovered the plot of Bee Movie, spawner of one million memes.

cryptonector 3y ago

I have every kind of wild local pollinator on my flowers as well my honeybees: wild solitary bees, wasps, butterflies, and hummingbird moths.

mrweasel 3y ago

This is completely anecdotally but keeping honey bees in my garden appeared to attract a large number of wild bees, like bumblebees, ground nesting and solitary bees. Part of it might be that I've attempted to great an good environment for my own bees, part of it might also simply be that I notice bees a lot more. Commercial beekeepers are a different story, but they mostly place their apiaries in areas where wild bees couldn't possibly manage to cover the entire area anyway, like fields. One issue that might be at play in your case is that types of bees beekeepers normally keep are way better at dealing with pesticides, as compared to bumblebees and solitary bees. Your neighbors might be going a bit heavy on the spraying and some might actively be destroying the nests of ground nesting bees out of fear. For a few weeks each year my sidewalk is alive with ground nesting bees, while just a few meters away everything is fuck dead, because a stupid neighbor is allergic to bees and wasp and assumes that every bee is going to kill him (he doesn't keep an epi-pen so I question the seriousness of his affliction), so he sprays pretty much all sidewalks around here, except mine.