Douglas Farm

From a letter to a friend about the Vegan honey debate,

Our honey is raw, I never have it hotter than the normal temperature range inside a hive. I normally extract honey on warm summer days so it flows without needing to be heated. I also sell other products like comb honey, which is about as raw as you can get.

It is my feeling, that my beekeeping practice of putting the bee first makes my honey vegan:

My primary goal is to make more bees and to keep them alive. So if one hive is having a slow year and doesn't make enough honey to survive the winter, I transfer some from a hive that did very well. So the hives help each other by sharing their honey. If there is a surplus after all the hives have been given enough to get them through to the spring, then I take my share, and harvest.

After all honey has been harvested I feed the bees, so they can avoid eating their winter stores as long as possible. I'm sure this might not be the case for commercial beekeepers who have several thousand hives.

Vegans argue they honey bee is exploited by the beekeeper, that the bees are the beekeepers slaves. I actually feel the opposite sometimes.

1. The bees are free to come and go, and sometimes they do leave (swarm)

2. The bees are fed pollen and sugar by me in periods when they can't get their own food. I purchased 1500lbs of sugar to feed them last year.

3. They are not forced to do work, they work various jobs on their own accord. They work to feed themselves as any free spirit does.

4. I give them a clean and dry home at great cost to myself. I repair their home if it is damaged or needs paint.

5. If a predator like a raccoon is attacking them I will defend them. I trapped one last year and let it go in a park 25 miles away.

I also sell bee pollen, a super food. Bees use it as the protein source of their diet. It is a super food because it has the highest protein concentration per ounce than any other food source. It's also vegetarian since it comes from flowers. Many people like it to pre-expose their body to pollen before allergy season.

Lastly, I'll say a beekeeper can live in a symbiotic relationship with his bees, though not all beekeepers are. Some beekeepers might exploit their bees, such as taking too much honey at the end of a year. Such a practice is also not sustainable beekeeping. A symbiotic relationship with bees is not the same as those that exploit them. I stand firm in saying a symbiotic relationship provited Vegan honey. So some honey is vegan, and some honey is not.