Buying Local Honey
Here’s why buying honey can actually “bee” beneficial to bees (under certain circumstances)!
What Is Honey?
You may have heard that honey is “bee vomit,” but where does it actually come from?
Photo Credit: Picryl
Honey starts as nectar collected from flowers by foraging honeybees (bees collect and feed on both nectar and pollen!). Bees drink nectar, storing it in their “honey stomach,” and regurgitate it when they return to the hive, passing it to other worker bees. The nectar is passed from bee to bee, collecting enzymes, and is deposited in the honeycomb. The fanning of bees’ wings causes excess liquid to evaporate, and when most liquid is gone, bees seal the honeycomb cells with a substance secreted from their abdomens that hardens into beeswax.
So… is honey vomit?? Well, bees don’t vomit honey in the way that mammals vomit - that is to say, mammals vomit from our stomachs, where the other food that we are digesting is located. Bees regurgitate honey from their honey stomach, also called a “crop,” which is a separate stomach! This means honey isn’t technically vomit, but the honey we eat has passed through many bees to get to us.
Where Does Our Honey Come From?
Please don’t think about The Bee Movie. There are so many things wrong with this movie that it needs to be a separate post.
The honey we buy at the grocery store generally comes from commercial hives of European honeybees (Apis mellifera). Like any mass-produced food, this honey may end up in the grocery store under questionable circumstances.
Oftentimes, European honeybees are trucked around the US, strategically released in different regions to pollinate economically-valuable crops. This is a concern for a few reasons: first, honeybees naturally decline in activity during the winter, taking a break from gathering pollen to huddle in their hives and shiver to keep the colony warm. During this time, they consume the excess honey they have been storing throughout the year. Moving bees to new, warmer regions to keep pollinating monocropped fields disrupts their natural cycle.
Photo Credit: Doug Waldron, Flickr
Second, prioritizing European honeybee conservation at the expense of native bees has serious impacts on their populations and our ecosystems.
But aren’t honeybees endangered? Thanks to the huge success of the “Save the Bees” campaigns, European honeybees populations are now stable and abundant! However, this success often comes at the expense of local and native bees.
Why native bees? It is just as important, if not more so, to save native bees for a few reasons: first, native bees are important pollinators of native plants. This is because native bees and native plants coevolved, giving native bees adaptations that make them more effective pollinators than honeybees in many cases.
Photo Credit: Jean and Fred Hort, Flickr. Native bee on Stylidium petiolare.
What effects to honeybees have on native bees? Ecologically, honeybees can compete with native bees for food and resources, and can spread disease to native bees. However, it is our attempt to save honeybees that has also been detrimental to native bees. Many of the ordinances aimed at saving honeybees were destructive to native bees - for instance, asking people to spray pesticides at night, when honeybees were inside their hives, is detrimental to native bees, many of which nest in the ground at night.
How To Support Bees by Buying Honey
Buy From People, Not Stores
While buying honey from the grocery store may put money in the pockets of unethical business owners, buying from local beekeepers accomplishes a few things:
(If you are using accessible technology, click here for a plain-text version).
Image made by Hailey Robe using Canva.
Another benefit of buying local honey? Your health! Consuming local honey can help with seasonal allergies, and it does not contain additives that grocery store honey might.
Where do you find local honey? The best place to find local honey is often farmers markets; you can also check neighborhood or city Facebook pages. And, some local shops will stock honey from local beekeepers, which can be an option as well. If you meet a local beekeeper, ask if they have an email list you can join to be notified when they have honey available!
I recognize that buying local honey can be more expensive in some cases, and not everyone can afford to do so! There are plenty of other things you can do to support bees as well (listed at the bottom of the post).
Ask Questions!
When buying local honey, ask the beekeepers questions! This is a great way to learn more about bees while making sure that you are buying from people who are treating their bees well. You could say, “Where do you keep your bees?” “How many bees do you have?” or “May I ask how much excess honey were you able to extract this year?”
Green flag behavior from this beekeeper! 💚 (Accessible text here)
Any time you can visit the hives, this is a great sign as well. While some beekeepers may prefer to keep their hives private for a variety of good reasons, a beekeeper who is willing to show others their hives is probably an ethical beekeeper!
Other Ways to Support Bees
Photo Credit: Flickr
Remember to consider your local/native species, not just European honeybees! There are tons of ways to support your local bees - more than I can list here - but I will narrow it down into a few categories:
Vote. Yup, politics affects bees, too. Whether it’s on a local, state, or national level, initiatives regarding environmental conservation - particularly use of pesticides or land development - has implications for all species, including bees. Voting is a great way to let your representatives know you support your local bees and value environmental conservation!
Eliminate pesticides. Pesticides don’t just hurt the insects you are trying to get rid of - they affect the entire ecosystem. They are huge sources of pollution, kill more insects than they advertise, and can devastate the populations/ecosystems our bees depend on.
Plant native plants. Native pollinators often have special relationships with native plants - planting them can create habitat and food sources for your native bees! Plus, it’s very beneficial for other insects and animals, and may require less maintenance than other garden store plants.
Learn more! Read up on your local and native bees, and listen to “Indigenous Melittology (Native Bees)” from the Ologies podcast with host Alie Ward and guest expert Krystle Hickman.
