Are Jordan's being a tad hypocritical?

[Jiffy]

The UK cereal company http://www.jordanscereals.co.uk/ are currently running a campaign called 'The Big Buzz' to encourage people to plant Bee friendly plants and get Brownie points for it.

They still use honey in their products though. Go figure.

Presumably the bees are delighted to have all that tiresome honey taken off their hands and suffer no ill effects as a result, living to a ripe old age in a retirement home in Bournemouth.

[cobweb]

well y'know if kind and thoughtful people didn't use honey then Bees would become extinct! :devil:

have you written to them, Jiffy?.

[Jiffy]

well y'know if kind and thoughtful people didn't use honey then Bees would become extinct! :devil:

have you written to them, Jiffy?.

Ho yuss!...well I've left a comment on their website, which I doubt will get past the virtual blue pencil.

[Buddha Belly]

[QUOTE=cobweb;584053]well y'know if kind and thoughtful people didn't use honey then Bees would become extinct! :devil:

QUOTE]


LMFAO :D:D:D:D

[gogs67]

well y'know if kind and thoughtful people didn't use honey then Bees would become extinct! :devil:

have you written to them, Jiffy?.
It is a worry though. When was the last time you saw a wild Honey Bee colony?
Bumble bees seem to be riding out this plague/virus/pesticide induced extinction/whatever it is (from what i've seen this year anyway), but there is grave concern over the future of honey bees.:(
I havn't seen a wild hive in over 10 years!

[cobweb]

tis a worry, Gogs, but most people who worry about it (present company excepted!) only worry because the decline of Bees will affect us lovely humans.

[puca]

The decline of bees scares the sh*t outta me. :( It's not about the honey obviously, but the fact that it will pretty much cripple our biodiversity and make local food production impossible.

But I support Jordan's campaigning if it encourages people to put plants in their garden for bees. Whether or not they use honey... Any environmental awareness raising is good.

And there are over 200 species of solitary bee in the British Isles too, who will benefit and who also need bee hotels.

Make 'em people!!! Be hotels rock :thumbsup:

[Jiffy]

Don't get me wrong, I love the little chaps and in the 30 or so years I've been a keen gardener I have always planted with them and other forms of wildlife in mind.

I was just wondering how many Bees are kiled as a result of Honey plundering and to what extent Bee farming has contributed to the decline in numbers.

[puca]

I was just wondering how many Bees are kiled as a result of Honey plundering and to what extent Bee farming has contributed to the decline in numbers.
From what I know the issue isn't with honey bee farming, as to why they are declining. Even if honey bee farms do harm honey bees (I am not an expert on this), it wouldn't explain the decline in other bee species.

This is my guess...

So there are lots of reasons bees are in decline.... Loss of habitat and pesticides are one (pesticides screw a lot of stuff up, you see baby birds deformed and adult birds dying from them because it goes up the food chain)... Also, a lot of people are killing bee nests because they think they are wasps... Solitary bees, who need holes to live in are also in decline because places for them to live are disappearing. I think there are issues like illness too...

It is really sad, some areas have had population drops of over 75%. :( I remember talking to my friend abut it and he was like "so what, bees are shit".... Bees are wonderful little creatures and not nearly as aggressive, or dangerous (to most) as we think.

[Jiffy]

How can you mistake a bee for a wasp? Then again I've seen people call hoverflies 'wasps'.

Sometimes I despair.

[cobweb]

I think Bees are suffering from a horrible disease which is aprt of their problem, on top of the environmental problems.

[DavidT]

We've made a 'wildlife hotel' at the edge of our property. Anyone can do it, it's simple but you can be inventive and imaginative too. Solitary insects, like a lot of bees for instance, like a small hole just the right diameter and depth, so you create holes of random depths and using a variety of drill bits in bits of wood and branches. The more the merrier.

Just pile up around half-a-dozen or so pallets, the plain wood ones, try to avoid painted ones. You can get small pallets too, if you've not much room.

Fill the gaps in the pallets with your material. Rolled-up corrugated cardboard, straw, your bits of randomly-drilled wood (drill sizes from 2 mm up to about 10 mm inclusive), bamboo, sponges, anything you think some small creature somewhere might like.

You can use the top pallet as a 'table' for plant pots, with trailing plants disguising the pallets.

I've no picture of ours but here's an artistic example what I mean without the plant pot idea:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Mm41K9nKoDw/SA8Su3rlPwI/AAAAAAAADik/RxzzENoy0pY/s320/21.JPG
You can leave it there for years. They'll find it. Insects love the rotting wood and you can keep 'recharging' it with new stuff.

[jimmeh]

that's an adorable idea

[puca]

See, what I made was more like a shitty hostel, than a hotel.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dUOEiyNeCkk/Sg760nw74PI/AAAAAAAAAAw/qqEJHzXeLGw/s320/DSC00156.JPG

[EmilySequoy]

See, what I made was more like a shitty hostel, than a hotel.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dUOEiyNeCkk/Sg760nw74PI/AAAAAAAAAAw/qqEJHzXeLGw/s320/DSC00156.JPG

I think it's cute!

[gogs67]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Mm41K9nKoDw/SA8Su3rlPwI/AAAAAAAADik/RxzzENoy0pY/s320/21.JPG
You can leave it there for years. They'll find it. Insects love the rotting wood and you can keep 'recharging' it with new stuff.
That is brilliant!


See, what I made was more like a shitty hostel, than a hotel.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dUOEiyNeCkk/Sg760nw74PI/AAAAAAAAAAw/qqEJHzXeLGw/s320/DSC00156.JPG

Hey, hostels have their uses for us poor folk!:D

That's good as well!:thumbsup:

[DavidT]

See, what I made was more like a shitty hostel, than a hotel.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_dUOEiyNeCkk/Sg760nw74PI/AAAAAAAAAAw/qqEJHzXeLGw/s320/DSC00156.JPG

That's quite upmarket for a hostel; 'bijou' used to be the word, didn't it?

I think it is terrific, I really do. AND it looks like it's all stuff that would be thrown away, so it's even more perfect.

Here's (http://www.garden4less.co.uk/insect-box.asp) a small selection for the lazier insect lover. Puca's beats them all.

[Jiffy]

I'm afraid I've cocked up. I received an email from Jordans but somehow have managed to lose it.

I cannot quote it verbatim but the general gist of it was

Thank you for your message, though I'm unsure what your concerns are. We do use honey on a small scale but no bees are harmed during its collection and the processis entirely natural for them.

I must 'fess up and say that I'm not sufficiently au fait with beekeeping to know whether this benign picture of bucolic bliss is feasible.

[DavidT]

I'm afraid I've cocked up. I received an email from Jordans but somehow have managed to lose it.

I cannot quote it verbatim but the general gist of it was

Thank you for your message, though I'm unsure what your concerns are. We do use honey on a small scale but no bees are harmed during its collection and the processis entirely natural for them.

I must 'fess up and say that I'm not sufficiently au fait with beekeeping to know whether this benign picture of bucolic bliss is feasible.

Perhaps you could direct them to the Vegan Society's page (http://www.vegansociety.com/animals/exploitation/bees.php) on this?

[Prawnil]

... the process is entirely natural for them.
I understand it was just the gist, but ...Eh?

[gogs67]

I'm afraid I've cocked up. I received an email from Jordans but somehow have managed to lose it.

I cannot quote it verbatim but the general gist of it was

Thank you for your message, though I'm unsure what your concerns are. We do use honey on a small scale but no bees are harmed during its collection and the processis entirely natural for them.

I must 'fess up and say that I'm not sufficiently au fait with beekeeping to know whether this benign picture of bucolic bliss is feasible.
Almost all small scall bee keeping is not harmful to the bees, they are fed by the beekeeper with a sweet solution in place of the honey he collects.
It's all to do with how you perceive the 'arrangement'.
Personally i wouldn't say it was vegan but i don't really have any problem with people who have a bee hive at the bottom of their garden.
It's a hive that wouldn't be there otherwise.
Commercial bee keeping is another matter altogether.