Increasing Welfare of Honey Bees: Sweet Spot for Violence Prevention
<p id="p1">This chapter describes the current plight of honey bees, focusing on <em><italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">Apis mellifera</italic></em>, who are exploited for food and med...
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| Formato: | Capítulo de libro |
| Lenguaje: | inglés |
| Publicado: |
IntechOpen
2025
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/89784 |
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| Sumario: | <p id="p1">This chapter describes the current plight of honey bees, focusing on <em><italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">Apis mellifera</italic></em>, who are exploited for food and medicine, pollination, and as sentinels, and to decrease violence; they also serve as cultural inspiration and are an important interface between humans and non-humans. In spite of their importance and willingness to work with human beings, honey harvesting, beekeeping, and bee farming are often violent and destructive operations. Many, if not most, honey bees die by human hands wielding fire, pesticides, diseases, and poor care. In addition, many <em><italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">Apis mellifera spp.</italic></em> are moved into ecosystems to which they are not native, and through their essential act of collecting pollen and nectar, disrupt those ecosystems. Collecting bee products is done through honey-hunting, natural beekeeping, and industrialized bee farming. Bee farming is highly associated with pesticides, disease, and displacing local pollinators. To work less violently and more peacefully with <em><italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">Apis mellifera spp.</italic></em>, humans need to de-emphasize industrialized bee farming and emphasize natural beekeeping with native bees. In natural beekeeping, bee health is achieved by rejuvenating local ecosystems with foraging plants and allows periodic swarming. Beekeepers should be supported with simple tools and training to employ harvesting practices that decrease aggressive defense responses of bees. This will result in less violent, more peaceful interactions between humans and honey bees, as well as help stabilize ecosystems.</p> |
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| ISBN: | 978-0-85014-129-0 |
| DOI: | 10.5772/intechopen.115609 |