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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

#61

Post by beardicus »

partiallypro wrote: post #58

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 exp…

Spreading bees out would not make a difference here. All hives have some level of varroa nowadays. The level depends on management techniques and not so much proximity to other hives with mites. Spreading hives out into 1 acre plots wouldn't do much when bees are foraging miles away from the hive, and would make it more difficult to visit each hive for maintenance.

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

#63

Post by icebraining »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #48
icebraining wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Roads, educational facilities, welfare, military, all of those expenses don’t disappear because someone decided to donate something. They also wouldn't disappear if Morgan Freeman had decided to volunteer his labor for a foundation for free - thereby not earning any taxable income - yet the State would have to work it out. In this case, the labor donation was just done indirectly.

The point is that you can't tell if it was a donation, or if it was something else. Just like a donation to a certain non profit organization isn't just a donation, but buying votes, or in exchange for some other favor. The incentive to donate should be wanting to donate, there doesn't need to be anything on top of that from the government.

You can't tell if unpaid volunteer work is a donation either, yet it's not taxed.

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

#64

Post by [deleted] »

partiallypro wrote: post #58

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 exp…

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by Radim »

andrepd wrote: post #27
Radim wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The typical argument is that "tax incentives", whether positive or negative, ultimately come from other people's hard work and money. And those people may not agree with you (the benevolent distributor of incentives) on what "good outcomes" are. TL;DR: People have their own, often highly idiosyncratic ideas about what's worthwhile and how they want to spend their money.

>And those people may not agree with you (the benevolent distributor of incentives) I was under the impression that in a democracy there was no single BDFL.

And how does that change the explanation, "People have their own, often highly idiosyncratic ideas about what's worthwhile and how they want to spend their money.", one way or another?

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

#66

Post by rootusrootus »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #59
rootusrootus wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Conversely, having some consideration for your neighbors is part of existing in civil society.

I live in a neighborhood that very closely fits the definition of upper middle class suburbia, and the power balance is most assuredly not in favor of complainers. Quite the opposite in fact.

I also think you do a disservice to this discussion by suggesting it is just innocent people going about their lives that are being held back by the evil complainers. From my perspective it is the assholes driving their damn two-cycle quads up and down the street for hours every morning where there's more than half an inch of snow on the ground. These folks are not going about their lives, they are entertaining themselves at the neighborhood's expense.

I detest HOAs but a well-run community benefits from a collective agreement on what constitutes 'reasonable'.

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

#67

Post by tptacek »

Your periodic reminders that:

1. Honey bees in North America are a non-native invasive species.

2. Virtually all honey bees in the United States are livestock.

3. Colony collapse disorder is an economic issue for commercial beekeepers, and apparently not much of a problem.

4. The true threat to honey bees in the United States isn't environment, but rather the introduction of the Varroa destructor mite in 1987 (which eradicated feral honey bees).

A "honey bee sanctuary" in the continental US is a weird idea.

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

#68

Post by wodenokoto »

tptacek wrote: post #67

Your periodic reminders that: 1. Honey bees in North America are a non-native invasive species. 2. Virtually all honey bees in the United States are livestock. 3. Colony collapse disorder is an economic issue for commercial beekeepers, and apparently not much of a problem. 4. The true threat to honey bees in the United States isn't environment, but rather the introduction of the Varroa destructor mite in 1987 (which…

About number 3, according to wikipedia [1]

> the total U.S. crop value that was wholly dependent on honey bee pollination was estimated to exceed $15 billion.

and

> honeybees perform some level of pollination of nearly 75% of all plant species directly used for human food worldwide.

Which sounds like a bit more than just beekeeping.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder#Econo...

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

#69

Post by ghaff »

dnate wrote: post #22

For those who were wondering: 124 acres =~ 0.5 square km or 50 hectar so pretty big

Pretty big is relative. Sure, that's pretty big relative to suburban plots that are more likely to be in the 1/2 to 2 acre range. But it's not huge once you get even moderately rural; my two neighbors and I are on about 75 acres collectively. And it's actually pretty small relative to, say, many ranches out West.

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

#70

Post by tptacek »

wodenokoto wrote: post #68
tptacek wrote: post #67

Your periodic reminders that: 1. Honey bees in North America are a non-native invasive species. 2. Virtually all honey bees in the United States are livestock. 3. Colony collapse disorder is an economic issue for commercial beekeepers, and apparently not much of a problem. 4. The true threat to honey bees in the United States isn't environment, but rather the introduction of the Varroa destructor mite in 1987 (which…

About number 3, according to wikipedia [1] > the total U.S. crop value that was wholly dependent on honey bee pollination was estimated to exceed $15 billion. and > honeybees perform some level of pollination of nearly 75% of all plant species directly used for human food worldwide. Which sounds like a bit more than just beekeeping. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder#Econo...

Honey bees in the US are economically important despite not being a natural part of our ecosystem. But they're no more threatened in that role than CAFO pigs are. At its peak, "colony collapse" was (apparently; there are experts on HN who can break this out with precision) associated with low double digit overwintering losses, no meaningful increase in the price of new queens, and normal fluctuations in the price of pollination services.

It's also worth remembering that if your concern over bees is environmental and not economic, honey bees compete with native bees and also transmit pathogens to them. They're not entirely benign.

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