Using Queen Cells

Reading: http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/usingqcells.html

1. This article explores what can be done with excess/spare queen cells. You could give them away, or "bank" them (storing mated queens) by getting them mated (have several in a mating nuc box, cage all but one, and then allow them to mate quickly in succession).

Lastly, and, to me, most strikingly, you could produce queen pheromone lure. In essence, you freeze the queen bees and stew them in an alcoholic mixture for several months. The liquid you get from this is, apparently, very luring to bees, and you can use it to lead swarms to where you want them.

2. You know, I've gotten to like these little creatures so much that I think of them as people. Unwise, yes, and a little heartbreaking. Every time we squish some for a "greater good" of the hive (or, more specifically and honestly, perhaps, for the farmed honey), a little bit of me retreats into a safe room and shuts the door tight. The mind recognises the point, but the little angel sitting on my shoulder gives a little sniffle.

This article very much brought out that discomfort. It read as something that was so calculated. Machine-like. Mechanical. Pragmatic, but having lost all consideration of the subjects as living beings.

The very last suggestion of the queen pheromone lure in particular struck me as incredibly cold. Perhaps I read one too many fairy tales as a child, but all I could imagine in my mind were helpless anthropomorphic queens being chilled and dropped, frightened, into a vat of alcohol. And then I couldn't help but wonder "what if?"

What if, instead of bees, this was an article written by evolutionarily advanced aliens about farming humans? Certainly, to us, it would seem excessively cruel, killing (in essence) pregnant women because they found that the "New Mom" scent would help them wield control. But to them? They would be so above humanity, so unaware of our level of consciousness, that they'd be oblivious to the pain.

But the bees aren't that smart. They'll get over it and probably won't even notice. Right? But just as our alien overlords wouldn't understand our consciousness, we'll never truly understand the consciousness of those little bumbling buzzy balls. Our line is purely arbitrary -- this group of life can feel such-and-such, and so it's not okay to do that. But this manifestation of life can't feel such-and-such, so it must be all right to do that.


Perhaps we look at it neurologically. "They couldn't possibly feel 1, 2, or 3, that's crazy talk. Don't worry so much about doing A, B, or C. "

But it's disingenuous to look at a brain and say that we can understand, completely, how things are experienced by everything (not just bees or other people). Complete empathy (absolutely knowing how it feels to be something that is not yourself)? I'd argue that that is impossible. We're too limited.

All this probably isn't what the writer had in mind when writing this guide, and certainly, it's meant as instructions, not something to trigger reflections on cruelty and humanity and consciousness, but there it is. Personal comments.




Also, it seems weird to me that the information at the bottom states that the page was "Generated" on 02 February 2002. "Generated", not "written" or "compiled". "Generated".

Like a machine spitting out a program.

Appropriate enough.