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Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

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Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#51

Post by nkurz »

adolph wrote: post #42
sagebird wrote: post #35

This article is a bit superficial. CCD is more than just pesticides killing bees. The invasive varroa mite is likely a big factor. It’s a good thing that he is taking care of bees. The solution might be more complex than sanctuaries though— IE how can we reduce the mite population? Potential CCD Causes According to EPA: ... researchers who are leading the effort to find out why are now focused on these factors: Incre…

I like bees, but aren't they effectively an invasive species too? When temperatures increased, fauna and habitat changed drastically, causing the extinction of Apis in the New World until they were reintroduced by European settlers in 1622 (Engel et al. 2009). https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/9700...

European honey bees are an "introduced species"[1], but this doesn't in itself make them an "invasive species"[2]. To be labeled invasive, they also have to be causing harm to their new ecosystem. While there might be some ways that honey bees are harmful[3], they aren't usually considered invasive.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduced_species

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species

[3] https://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/16-067_02_...

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#52

Post by rootusrootus »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #43
folkrav wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HOAs are exceedingly rare in Canada, outside condo associations.

The GP's neighbor sounds like they have their panties in a bunch but going out of your way not to offend/annoy those kind of people is just the reality in those kind of places. If you want to live somewhere "nice" but not the middle of nowhere you need to conform. Unfortunately things like having a large garden, having parties, having a project boat, or collecting late 80s vintage cars do not fit within the scope of…

This is something I have never really understood. If your neighbors can hear or smell your hobby, then you are not really staying contained on your own property and neighbors who complain are not trampling your liberties, just asserting their own.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#54

Post by avar »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #47
avar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want tax dollars to support a cause, then vote for it. This is literally what people have voted for by having tax deductions for certain "good" things, like giving to charity, using some of your land for bees or whatever. Just because it's agreed that something should be done in the aggregate, doesn't mean that it needs to be centrally managed by some state agency. You decide X is wanted, and then leave the…

I think it's easier to hold fewer larger entities accountable, assuming we mandate transparency, than many small ones. Increasing complexity always benefits the seller (politicians and their influencers). Ideally, all tax receipts would go into one pot, and then all expenditures would come out of it, so it's simple to account for. We have a system that enables "donations" to religious tribes in exchange for political…

Whether something is a worthwhile expenditure is a separate from the discussion about the implementation detail of it being supported directly through state funding, or indirectly via tax deductions.

E.g. in many EU countries religious organizations are directly funded through taxes. So in some way it comes down to the same thing, both systems have their ups & downs.

Doing it via tax deductions is often cheaper, because in many cases you can get people to match state dollars at some ratio, and since they get to choose what they fund within some framework they often get some benefit for themselves as well.

E.g. in this case Morgan Freeman gets to walk around on his private land covered in bees which'll be partially state funded. The government didn't need to buy land somewhere just for this purpose.

Instead they find someone who's willing to do this not just for the tax benefit, but also because they for whatever reason don't mind a lot of bees on their land.

So Freeman gets a tax write-off, less money is spent overall for the same amount of bees in the ecosystem, it's a win-win.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#55

Post by celticninja »

rootusrootus wrote: post #52
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The GP's neighbor sounds like they have their panties in a bunch but going out of your way not to offend/annoy those kind of people is just the reality in those kind of places. If you want to live somewhere "nice" but not the middle of nowhere you need to conform. Unfortunately things like having a large garden, having parties, having a project boat, or collecting late 80s vintage cars do not fit within the scope of…

This is something I have never really understood. If your neighbors can hear or smell your hobby, then you are not really staying contained on your own property and neighbors who complain are not trampling your liberties, just asserting their own.

Hearing or smelling something from a neighbouring property is just something you have to live with. Just like leaves that fall off a neighbour's trees into your property, may be a pain to tidy up, but that's just life. Sound and smell travel, should I have pave over my garden because you have allergies or don't like the smell of my roses or the manure that I feed them?

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#56

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

RankingMember wrote: post #39
pault wrote: post #38

Is it safe to live in a sanctuary for giant bees?

In my experience bees don't really mess with you unless you try to (or accidentally) mess with their nest.

I think GP was making a joke based on the ambiguous wording of the headline. ;)

FWIW though, we have a hive in our back garden and the bees don't bother us or the neighbours at all.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#57

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

peteradio wrote: post #29

Is this for honeybees?? I hope its for native bees because why would you create a sanctuary for what is basically an agricultural animal like cow or sheep.

Why not both? Native bees can live alongside honeybees quite happily.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#58

Post by partiallypro »

One glaring problem I see with this is that anyone who has ever had hives (which my family has) knows how quickly Varroa mites can spread (the #1 killer of bees.) If all the bees are in a single location, that could wipe out every hive there. Would make more sense to me if you made sanctuaries that were spread on ~1 acre plots around a wide area (thinking several cities/town in a clustered area.)

Anyone with more expertise is free to correct me, but I feel like clustering bees on single plots, even 124 acres (which seems big, but is not really that big,) really has some risk if your end goal is to preserve the species.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#59

Post by dsfyu404ed »

rootusrootus wrote: post #52
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The GP's neighbor sounds like they have their panties in a bunch but going out of your way not to offend/annoy those kind of people is just the reality in those kind of places. If you want to live somewhere "nice" but not the middle of nowhere you need to conform. Unfortunately things like having a large garden, having parties, having a project boat, or collecting late 80s vintage cars do not fit within the scope of…

This is something I have never really understood. If your neighbors can hear or smell your hobby, then you are not really staying contained on your own property and neighbors who complain are not trampling your liberties, just asserting their own.

Not whining over the slightest inconvenience is part of existing in civil society. Complaining about your neighbor using an air hammer on steel at 11pm, ok. Complaining about your neighbor using an air hammer on steel at normal hours = not ok.

It all comes down to being reasonable and in middle upper class suburbia the Overton window of what is reasonable has moved to favor the complainers over the people who want to go about their lives to the point where those places have seen fit to legislate (or enforce via HOA) what is "reasonable" and that inevitably turns into a race to the bottom.

Re: Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary

#60

Post by forkandwait »

mikekchar wrote: post #17
forkandwait wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you describe the sanctuary nearby? We live on a typical city lot, and I am going to try to become a mini-sanctuary over the next few years and would love working examples.

Be careful of your city bylaws. I grew a wildflower garden in my backyard in Canada and got a complaint once. Given that the neighbour to one side asked be to do it makes me think it might have been the neighbour on the other side :-) I actually didn't mind cutting it down because I was moving that year anyway, but it pays to talk with your neighbours and find out what the city requires. It is especially important to…

Actually, there is a pro-organic, pollinator and wildlife friendly program in my city whose lead I am following. Another reason I don't move....

My only plan for the summer is to seed the lawn with clover, water weekly, and keep it cut at the top height of my mower.

How big was your garden, and how visible from the neighbors? In the front I can see that, but who cares in the back, at least in my area.

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