Bees don't have to be killed to produce honey

Your magazine is very helpful and enjoyable. I have been a vegetarian all of my 89 years, have enjoyed it, and hope to live a few more wonderful years.

The letters from young people who have become vegetarians deserve praise for their efforts. One letter puzzled me when the writer stated that bees had to be killed in order to get the honey. (See: Nicole Guenther's winning essay in Issue One 2002). I grew up with bees and worked with them, and we never killed them to get the honey. Normally, they are not killed unless they have a disease. Thank you for your fine magazine.

A.M.
Warrenton, OR

Editors' Note: In 1996, Caroline Pyevich (a VRG intern) wrote an article titled, "Busy Bees," which appeared in Vegetarian Journal. You can read that article online at <www.vrg.org/journal/vj96nov/bee.htm>. In this piece, she states that beekeepers burn a hive when the bees are infected with American Foulbrood, a fatal and highly contagious bacterial disease in bees.

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