big fan of flowers

1) honeybees do not produce “extra honey.” And beekeepers don’t take some of the honey, they take all of it.

Because I am!

Beekeepers make sure hives are fed before there is pollen in the air, protected from predators and the elements, and have enough honey to sustain themselves. We don’t take all of it.

But overproduction of honey leads to stagnation in the hive. It puts stress on the queen to lay eggs, and when they inevitably fill up all their space with honey (instead of filling up the multiple empty, clean boxes of frames beekeepers might put on top of the main hive box), the queen can get so stressed she dies. If there’s a spike in the weather and the hive hasn’t prepared new queen brood, that’s it! The colony is dead. Because there wasn’t enough space for eggs and honey in the hive.

Beekeepers take excess honey. We are constantly monitoring the state of the hive, checking for parasites, analyzing the eggs for diseases, and making sure they are fed and healthy (usually with sugar water and pollen substitutes until they have made enough honey to sustain themselves in the early spring months). If a queen dies prematurely, we make every attempt to replace her to save the colony.

I know there’s an urge to patronize everyone who works in the farming industry, but try to understand the differences between small scale agriculture and industrial farming. There IS a difference. And stop spreading misinformation.

If you’re this passionate about ethical consumption, look into some of the ecofeminist research on non-hierarchal interspecies relationships (working on building animal-human relationships in a non exploitative way).

Yea Chickens are some of the most abused animals on big factory farms and I’ll be the first to admit it’s criminal and more needs to be done to regulate this.

Yes selective breeding over time has caused an increase in the ammount of eggs produced by chickens and factory farms have some messed up practices to get more eggs from them including forced moutling.

THIS IS WHY YOU SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS AND THEIR EGGS

And backyard hens are often spoiled pets. They get fed rich, hearty, varied diets. Usually a staple chow and then extras like leafy greens, bugs, fruits, veggies. Often they get table scraps. I’ve seen countless people make warm oatmeal on cold mornings to give to Their Ladies. They make them chicken sweaters, and aprons, and diapers so they can visit inside the house for snuggles. Enrichment is increasing for them every day. Most people allow their birds to free range during the day when it’s nice out. They give them names.

They also lay eggs, often infertile ones but even the fertile ones aren’t “babies” like you’re thinking. They are absolutely inert without incubation for over 24 hours straight because chickens lay a clutch of 8-15 eggs and need them to hatch at all the same time so they don’t start incubation until the hen stops laying and sits on them. Brooding is just as hard if not harder on them than laying is, because they stop eating and drinking except once a day, and hold in their poop so they only poop once a day instead of eliminating waste every 15 minutes or so like they would normally. This can cause them to lose a lot of weight and some birds will sit on eggs until it seriously threatens their health. So normally you don’t WANT them to brood if you can prevent it, unless you know they have fertile eggs AND you want babies or know how you’re going to re-home them. It’s also not possible to safely fix a bird; anesthesia is an extremely dangerous risk that often leads to death and no vet in their right mind would risk it just so you can prevent a chicken hen from laying eggs.

IN SUMMARY: The eggs they naturally produce by existing and being well cared for are edible, nutritious, and taste good, you cannot safely prevent them from laying them, and leaving the eggs in with them can lead to negative health consequences.

So what would you have someone do? Throw away food just because your pet produced it instead of the dirt? That’s illogical and wasteful.

POC in Goth/Punk/Alternative Music

Submissions Open!!

Relaunching this again for a future ‘not-post’, but something better! Thank you to everyone who continued to send in suggestions. Submit here.

As an addition to the goth/post-punk/alt band masterpost, here’s a list of bands featuring members of color. Most are influential, others new discoveries or future freak gods. Thanks to research and helpful readers, here’s a bit of sick sound suitable for all taste buds:

Goth, dark or industrial:

Creature Feature - Erik X is an evil composer and organ player with a special gift for raising the dead.

Plastique Noir -the Brazilian band that made the song “Empty Streets” that’s just too dark to handle.

O. Children - contrary to popular belief, Tobi O’Kandi is not, in fact, a black reincarnation of Ian Curtis.

Thrill Kill Kult - sick industrial band with several poc members.

Glorious Din

Android Lust - Shikhee is Bangladeshi, and she makes some of the best industrial music ever heard.

She Past Away

13th Moon

Malice Mizer and Moi Dix Mois

Phaidia

Corrupted - awesome japanese doom/sludge band that are considered super influential in the scene.

Light Asylum - heavy dark synth primarily. It’s really fun and the front singer HAS A MIGHTY POWER.

Plastic Zooms

Hocico

Crowd Pleaser

Angelspit

Punk, hardcore or post-hardcore:

Bad Brains - why most of the bands on this list even exist.

Death - not to be confused with the metal band of the same way. Not that you could confuse the members in any way.

Rough Francis - founded by the sons of David Hackney of Death.

Pure Hell - afropunk taken literally.

X-Ray Spex - Poly Styrene was the energy and feel of the band. Actually, she was just energy and feel period. Fun fact: she was also bipolar.

Radkey - Rad.

TMGE - Japanese band named “Thee Michelle Gun Elephant” or as they prefer: JAPANESE BAND NAMED “THEE MICHELLE GUN ELEPHANT”.

Tamar Kali - powerful musician, especially known for “Boot”.

The Objex - Feloney Melony’s got a wicked hawk and voice.

Stiffed - Santi White now performs solo as Santigold.

Cerebral Ballzy

Suicidal Tendencies

Midori - great jazz-punk fusion band.

The Redscare

Le Butcherettes - Mexican garage punk band.

Atari Teenage Riot

NOFX

Stalin

The Bags

Dev Hynes - a British musician who started out in a punk band Test Icicles then went solo as a folk/indie musician as Lightspeed Champion and now is doing an electronic/R&B thing as Blood Orange.

L’Arc-en-Ciel - Okay, so these guys are Japan’s other most famous export. These guys got known outside of japan for doing some major anime theme songs (Fullmetal Alchemist, Gundam 00, NANA live action movie, etc) and were the first Japanese act to headline Madison Square Garden (Japanese rock bands really like New York for some reason). Their bassist tetsuya (formally known as tetsu) gets bonus points for being one of Japan’s only out LGBT celebrities (he’s Bi).

Doll$Box

Letlive

The Chariot

Trashtalk

Gogol Bordello - self described as “gypsy punk”. Singer Eugene Hütz is Russian-Ukranian with Romani heritage and born with a ‘stache. Nearly crazier than Little Big and Korpiklaani combined.

Blackfire

The Bots - punk duo made of two brothers.

Bow Wow Wow - IIIIIII Waaaant Caaandy!!!

Love Equals Death

Ritualization - blackened death metal from Orléans, France

Teengenerate

Ten Grand

Letlive

Martin Sorrondeguy - spoke out about US based Latino issues in many of his lyrics and was involved in bands Los Crudos, Limp Wrist and Needles.

Ghost Town

Metal, funk/rap/reggae metal fusion or core:

Blasphemy - Black metal, the biggest irony on earth as Caller of the Storms remains one of the rare black musicians within the genre.

Babymetal - this Japanese trio is more metal than a viking woman on her period in the middle of a battlefield drinking the blood of her enemies to the sound of Immortal…for some at least.

Wicked Wisdom - Will Smith’s wife get a band?? Yes she Will.

Unlocking the Truth - these 13 year olds played in the streets of NYC before they opened for Living Colour.

Absolace - amazing metal from Dubai.

Living Colour - better than Dead Monochrome.

King’s X - more hard rock, but hey.

Bionic Jive - one of the better hip-hop/metal fusions.

Skindred - check out the album “Roots Rock Riot”.

Ego Fall - a Chinese folk metal band and also Corbac’s fave. Mixing tradition with heavier sounds.

Static X - Japanese guitarist Koichi Fukuda & Mexican-American bassist Tony Campos.

Sepultura - the founding members are all Brazilian, currently their lead singer (Derrick Green) is black. “Arise” is a massive album of pure metal awesomeness.

Straight Line Stitch

Blood Stain Child

Sasamaso

Tenger Cavalry - a folk metal band based out of Bejing who describe their style as “Mongolian folk metal”. Like this and you’d probably enjoy Ego Fall.

Cthonic - Taiwanese metal band who’s lead singer is also the president for the Taiwanese branch of Amnesty International.Most of their music deals with their goal of an independent Taiwan and they’re really REALLY great.

Myrath

God Forbid

Invasion - a stoner/psych-metal band fronted by a valkyrie space wizard out of London.

Vodun - like invasion, marries punk, psychedelic, and doom metal influenced instrumentals with soul influenced vocals to create a unique and original takes on doom metal.

Sevendust

Animals as Leaders - most suggested band on this list and for good reason.

Veil of Maya

Oceano

Body Count - Ice T’s metal band rules. It would be a little tastier with ice cubes though.

Hirax - pioneering thrash/speed metal band (with hardcore influences). Katon De Pena is one of the most distinctive vocalists of the then-burgeoning California metal scene. Though they never achieved the success of some of their contemporaries like Metallica or Slayer, they have long been an insiders’ favorite and cited as an influence by bands ranging from Napalm Death to Cannibal Corpse to Darkthrone.

Infectious Grooves

Melechesh - an Assyrian black metal band originating from Jerusalem whose lyrical themes include Mesopotamian mythology and occultism.

Iron Man - American doom metal band with PoC members.

Sex Machineguns - Japanese speed metal band.

Hibria - Brazilian power metal band.

Metallica - their first lead guitarist was Lloyd Grant. Here he is in their first recording.

Gevolt - Yiddish band from Israel.

The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza

Gridlink

X Japan - Probably Japan’s most famous metal export. These guys are the reason Visual Kei (basically Japan’s gothic metal scene) exists. All those flashy JRock bands wouldn’t exist without X Japan. They also recently just played a huge show at Madison Square Garden.

Maximum the Hormone - Also known as “the guys that did that weird opening and ending to death note”, MTH do a fantastic combination of metal, punk, and even pop. The best part about MTH is that their lyrics don’t make sense even when translated so you can just have mindless fun listening to them even if you understand Japanese.

Suffocation - one of the most influential death metal acts of all time. Terrance Hobbs’ incredible mastery of the guitar allowed the band to blend complex technicality into the genre without sacrificing raw brutality.

Versailles Philharmonic Quintet

Suicide Silence

The Crimson Armada

For Today

Glass Cloud

Heaven in Her Arms

Here comes the Kraken

Issues

Periphery

Reflections

System of a Down

Fear Nuttin Band

Year of the Dragon - founder was a member of Fishbone.

Dir En Grey

Skyharbor

Spineshank

Coal Chamber

Ill Niño

Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in Dilapidation (FID) - Formed in Tokyo. Rad ladies playing some super hard grindcore.

Sarcofago - Brazilian band

Acrassicauda - Iraqi heavy metal. There is a film called “Heavy Metal in Baghdad”, about the band. Another documentary called Global Metal, which is by the same director as Heavy Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, is highly recommended.

Sigh - one of the first japanese black mack metal bands led by a fierce lady.

Sabbat - Japanese black/thrash.

Blood Stain Child - rather epic sounding Japanese metal band with contrasting vocals and instrumentals.

Gallhammer - female Japanese extreme metal band of doom. The wickedest chicks, definitely recommend.

Avulsed - Spanish death metal band.

Necramynth - Korean black metal.

Crossfaith - japanese metalcore.

Subrosa

As they Burn - deathcore band from Paris, France.

Wolves and Jackals - blackened thrash/death metal from Atlanta, GA.

Infernal Revulsion - brutal death metal from Tokyo, Japan

Orange Sky - from Trinidad and Tobago.

Monuments - it’s got saxophone and it’s awesome.

Ego Likeness

Peelander-Z - watch the videos, you’ll be happy you did.

For Today - if you’re into Christian metal.

Dream Theater - John Myung plays in the influential prog metal band with the aid of his majestic hair.

Alternative or too cool to label:

Bat for Lashes - Natasha Khan’s songs are ethereal.

Skunk Anansie - Skin is a fierce woman with a fierce voice. Also, her eyes will pierce through your soul.

Fishbone - literally unclassifiable: ska, punk, crazy cool…

Dub War - often likened to Skindred. Not because the singer has dreads or anything. Or because it’s the same guy.

The Slack Republic - fairly new (2005), looking forward to more.

Pierce the Veil - they’re really more “Punk Pop” than anything else. All members are Mexican.

Coheed and Cambria

Alice in Chains

Boris - japanese experimental metal band highly influential in the doom, stoner, noise rock scene.

Bleed the Pigs - great band with a singer who has an awesome colorful fro.

Motherjane

Jimi Hendrix - duh.

Asian Dub Foundation

BIS (Brand-New Idol Society) - considered “alternative Japanese idols”, and have done some amazing things including recruiting a new member who was rumored to be a high school girl and turned out to be Junko Koshino, a famous fashion designer who is 74 yrs old. Their song + video for MURA-MURA is excellent.

Go Betty Go - chicano rock, “pop punk”. Several of their songs are in Spanish.

Melt-Banana - Japanese noise rock band.

Deftones

Rage Against the Machine

TV on the Radio

Rain Machine

Bloc Party - singer is gay and black.

Little Dragon

Asobi Seksu

Blonde Redhead

The Go! Team

CSS

The English Beat

Kenna

Mono

One Ok Rock

ELLEGARDEN - JAPAN’S BEST 90s/EARLY 2000s POP PUNK ROCK EXPORT I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING. Part of what contributes to this is Takeshi Hosomi (singer/rhythm guitarist) writing ¾ of the band’s discography in perfect english. Unfortunately they went on hiatus in 2006, but that spawned two more fantastic bands: Takeshi does experimental progressive indie in the HIATUS (its the same guy I swear), and guitarist Shinichi Ubukata formedNothing’s Carved In Stone which is basically a Japanese alt. rock supergroup.

The Hiatus

Nothing’s Carved in Stone

Shonen Knife - you can’t talk about japanese girl rock without the literal originators of the movement/popularity. Because Kurt Cobain said he listened them, a HUGE surge of all girl bands started popping up over Japan.

O’Brother

The Pillows - alt rock band from Hokkaido.

Set it Off

The Novembers

Shiva En Exil

Guns N’ Roses - Slash.

(Hed) PE - (or Planet Earth) original sound described as “G-Punk”, a fusion of punk rock and gangsta rap.

Soundgarden

She Wants Revenge

Skip the Use - with influence from various genres and a black lead.

Elsiane - Formed in Montreal. Fronted by Elsieanne Caplette. Trip-hop/downtempo.

Fall Out Boy’s bassist Pete Wentz English/German and Afro-Jamaican.

Sonic Boom Six

Cibo Matto - real cool duo.

My Vitriol

Buck Tick

Wormrot - grindcore from Singapour.

Toe - post rock from Japan.

Guitar Wolf - “Jet Rock n’ roll”.

Gazette

Kanon Wakeshima

The Coup - Yesssss.

Street Sweeper Social Club

Merchant Ships - post hardcore.

The Skints - reggae/dub/punk fusion.

White Town - bzangy deserves WAY more recognition! You’ve probably already heard “I Could Never be Your Woman.”

The Mars Volta

Drill Queen - Born Depressed is just the greatest song.

Death Grips - experimental rap.

Grateful Dead

Suffrajett