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i am kind

i am in control of my emotions

it does not bother me when someone is in the kitchen while i was planning to be in there alone

everyone in the house has the right to be in the kitchen

many clip the wings of the queen, destroy new queen cells, cull queens they don't like and use bee pheromones to prevent a hive from naturally swarming or absconding. They also try and prevent mating with the African honey bee, which makes them less docile among other things. During artificial insemination of queens, drones are crushed and „spare“ queens are killed.

and commercial beekeepers even cull their hives during winter, or when they are not producing well.

Coupled with the fact that there is evidence that insects do feel pain, this is not great.

1 clipping the queen's wings saves the lives of the rest of the colony. An unclipped queen will cause the colony to swarm the first suitable summer. Only 20 some percent of natural swarms survive their first winter. A clipped queen cannot lead the colony on a swarm, and the colony returns to its hive where it can be cared for and looked after.

2 new Queen cells are destroyed because a colony with two queens is unstable and unsafe for the bees. There are 3 possibilities - the worker bees kill the old queen, the two queens fight to the death, or the colony swarms into two separate hives, often which compete for resources causing both colonies to collapse.

3 yes beekeepers prevent swarming. Swarming is not great for the bees. Bees are endangered and their natural habitation conditions are not supporting their population. A colony that swarms away is more likely to collapse than a colony that is looked after and provided for by a beekeeper

4 I've never heard about the breeding between African honeybee and the european or American honeybee. But this makes sense. Why would you want to breed your colony with a species from another continent? How would they breed naturally and what measures could you take to prevent that? Even if it was prevented what's the harm? The bees still get to reproduce. I fully don't understand this complaint.

5 artificial insemination is done by putting queen cells into queen cages to prevent them from going on mating flights. They are anesthetized, inseminated, and released back into the colony. Queen bees store the sperm from their mating session and use it for the rest of their reproductive lives aka when they're back in the colony. So they get caged, anesthetized, inseminated, and released back into their colony. This does not involve the killing of any bees

5 no, beekeepers do not cull their colonies in the winter. This makes no sense? It not only is bad for the colony but it's also bad for profits. Less bees = less honey = less profits. There are actually many different measures that beekeepers take to protect their colonies during the winter.

Source: Google it yourself. Here's a list of search queries

"Quen bee clipping pro vs con"

"What happens to a be colony with two queens"

first off, honey bees are not an endangered species. beekeeping is a very precarious business right now, and there are very few "wild"/feral honeybees at least in their introduced range, but this is not the same thing as being in danger of extinction.

clipping queens wings was actually not recommended by my textbook because sometimes if the workers feel that something is wrong with the queen, they will kill her, and it's not all that effective at preventing swarming. If you want to prevent the queen from leaving you can basically put a little door in the hive that is just big enough for the workers to leave but not the queen because she's bigger.

swarming is how honeybee colonies reproduce in nature. they make a new queen, the queen leaves with a bunch of the bees and honey, and the hive continues. this is their natural reproductive behavior, but beekeepers usually multiply hives by allowing the bees to raise new queens, removing the new queens, and placing them in new hives created by splitting up large hives. thus swarming is not necessary for them to reproduce.

When ALL the bees leave, that's called absconding and bees do it when they are not happy with the conditions of their hive. This can be because of parasite infestation, strong chemical smell, basically anything the bees don't like

african and european honeybees are the same species, but african honeybees are more aggressive. bees that have interbred between the two sub-species are called "africanized" bees or more commonly, "killer" bees. Basically, africanized bees are more vigorous in defending their hives to the point that they can literally kill people and livestock because they sting so many times. i don't have to explain why this is bad. however, they are better adapted to tropical environments so some keepers in central and latin america have learned safety precautions to work with them.

Artificial insemination of queens isn't very common, but nowadays a lot of researchers are trying to more intentionally breed bees with certain traits like disease resistance, and artificial insemination is the only way to do this because you otherwise can't control what drones the queen mates with. Yes, collecting the semen kills the drone, but only because drones naturally die during mating.

culling queens happens sometimes but it's important to note that a natural part of the queen's life is killing other queens in their cells or fighting them to the death once she emerges.

Low-performing hives are merged with more successful hives, not culled. Annual hive losses are up to 50%, but beekeepers obviously don't want this to happen.

The main source of profit for beekeepers actually isn't honey, it's pollination services. This is probably the main ethical problem with beekeeping as bees are trucked very long distances to pollinate industrial monocultures of crops like almonds, and in the process they are exposed to pesticides and diseases. it's very brutal on the bees and the pesticide filled industrial agriculture is obviously very bad for the ecosystem.

honey bees aren't native to areas outside europe, africa and asia, but since there are many crops from europe, africa and asia (such as almonds) that depend entirely on honeybees for pollination, they're not going anywhere unless we stop growing those crops.

I think the evidence is still unclear on whether honey bees negatively impact native bees in any way, but there isn't sufficient evidence to call them an invasive species

✨im not in high school

✨i dont have cilantro soap gene

And that's fantastic!! Starting a pollinator garden and/or encouraging people and businesses around you to do the same is an excellent way to help not just Monarchs but many other threatened and at-risk pollinator species!

However.

Please please PLEASE do not obtain Tropical Milkweed for this purpose!

Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica)--also commonly known as bloodflower, Mexican butterflyweed, and scarlet milkweed--will likely be the first species of milkweed you find for sale at most nurseries. It'll be fairly cheap, too, and it grows and propagates so easily you'll just want to grab it! But do not do that!

Tropical milkweed can cause a host of issues that can ultimately harm the butterflies you're trying to help, such as--

Harboring a protozoan parasite called OE (which has been linked to lower migration success, reductions in body mass, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability) for long periods of time

Remaining alive for longer periods, encouraging breeding during migration time/overwintering time as well as keeping monarchs in an area until a hard freeze wherein which they die

Actually becoming toxic to monarch caterpillars when exposed to warmer temperatures associated with climate change

However--do not be discouraged!! There are over 100 species of milkweed native to the United States, and plenty of resources on which are native to your state specifically! From there, you can find the nurseries dedicated to selling native milkweeds, or buy/trade for/collect seeds to grow them yourself!!

The world of native milkweeds is vast and enchanting, and I'm sure you'll soon find a favorite species native to your area that suits your growing space! There's tons of amazing options--whether you choose the beautiful pink vanilla-smelling swamp milkweed, the sophisticated redring milkweed, the elusive purple milkweed, the alluring green antelopehorn milkweed, or the charming heartleaf milkweed, or even something I didn't list!

And there's tons of resources and lots of people willing to help you on your native milkweed journey! Like me! Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions!

Just. PLEASE. Leave the tropical milkweed alone. Stay away.