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Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

animals.oreilly.com

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Re: Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

#41

Post by fghh45sdfhr3 »

masklinn wrote: post #33
zeteo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free honey? Beekeeping is actually a lot of work (especially when the hives are spread out like this). Also they say it's up to 85% effective, so that's the maximum not the average.

> Free honey? Beekeeping is actually a lot of work True, but you can decide your tradeoff: if you don't want or need much honey, don't gather it. The bees will be healtier as well, as a result.

Am I the only one to whom consecutive replies like this sound like one's own thinking process?

Re: Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

#44

Post by nostromo »

rosser wrote: post #40
nostromo wrote: post #35

The original problem is that farms are blocking elephant migration paths. "The elephants’ key migratory routes have been cut off in many places." And now you've replaced a fence that they can break through with a fence made of bees. Yes, this is probably good for the humans, but I don't see how it's better for the elephants.

From TFA, above the photo of Ms. King standing next to a hive fence, "The farmers leave wide pathways between their crops so elephants can move past the fences along their migratory routes."

Thanks, I didn't see that paragraph. (Perhaps my eye thought it was a caption.)

Re: Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

#45

Post by stouset »

apalmer wrote: post #23
mikeash wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occasionally suffer a relatively harmless sting from a bee versus have elephants destroy your livelihood... doesn't really seem like a difficult choice to me.

These are african bees, what we in america refer to as 'killer' bees. These bees are highly agressive and are much more likely to swarm a perceived threat, and once swarming will not stop stinging the preceived threat for potentially hours. Elephants which are more than 10 times as big as a person with a much thicker hide are not 'paranoid' of bees. Their fear is well justified.

No. 'Killer' bees are africanized European honeybees. These are just plain old African honeybees.

Re: Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

#46

Post by frogpelt »

freehunter wrote: post #27
frogpelt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting notion. You want her to profit but not to get rich. It's amazing how being rich has been demonized by society of late. Profit for the sake of profit works as signalling just as well as any other profit.

He said "not for the sake of getting rich". This indicates he's okay with her being rich, but he hopes she becomes rich for the sake of helping with an innovative idea rather than pure profit-mongering.

The phrase "profit-mongering" also shows that you demonize wealth unless you agree with the recipient's intentions.

Markets should be designed to reward people who produce and serve others well. When a market rewards someone or a group of people for producing and serving well, it should not be demonized. If what they are producing or serving is counter to the good of society then society must adapt laws and regulations to prevent those products and services from being distributed.

To pretend that a bee fence deserves more reward from the market than a soft drink formula simply because it makes you feel better inside is not a sustainable economic model.

Re: Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

#47

Post by grecy »

msandford wrote: post #4

I wish there was some way for her to profit off of the idea not for the sake of getting rich but to encourage others to take a look at solving other problems. Profits as signalling rather than for the sake of profits.

We just need more people who's motivations are not monetary.

Take a look at your average soup-kitchen volunteer - they're the kind of people we need.

Re: Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

#48

Post by grecy »

leeoniya wrote: post #14

i wonder what happens in the 15% of cases when it's not effective, do the destroyed bees nests unleash a swarm of African bees on all bystanders?

..and do the elephants get tangled up in the wires connecting the separate hives?

Re: Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

#49

Post by gyepi »

apalmer wrote: post #22
durkie wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Killer" is a misnomer -- in the beekeeping community, for obvious reasons, they prefer the term "africanized". And it is likely that these bees, being in Africa, are or will very soon be africanized. But it is still possible to safely and enjoyably keep and tend Africanized bees -- you just require some extra precautions, like smoking the hell out of them when you're working the hive, and leaving your protective gea…

I understand that 'killer' is a misnomer, in fact i debated the use of the term but in the end chose to use it precisely because a lot of the posters in this thread don't seem to be aware that (most?) common african bee variant is what we generally refer to as the killer bee. To go from occasionally having an interaction with Elephants, to everyday working your field in close proximity to highly aggressive bees that…

I have kept bees in West Africa. In my experience, African bees are a bit more defensive than European bees but they are by no means "killer" bees.

Certainly, there is no more risk (from the bees, anyway) to maintaining a bee hive in Africa than one in the US. In fact, I am frequently amazed at how much less protective gear African bee keepers use.

Also, I find that hive bees tend to be generally less aggressive than their wild cousins and can co-exist just fine with people. It is not at all uncommon for hives to be situated on farms or near houses.

Re: Farmers, Elephants, and Bees

#50

Post by notahacker »

DanBC wrote: post #30
grimtrigger wrote: post #12

I have to wonder, why are these kind of solutions driven by outside players instead of local communities? Is there some kind of informational advantage the locals don't have? Elephants scares bees seems so simple that I'm not sure why locals weren't already doing it.

Lots of ideas seem really simple with the benefit of hindsight. Here's an idea that took someone 30 years to come up with. ( http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94996/GLOBAL-Follow-the-fizz-... ) But it's really obvious! Why wasn't anyone doing this before?

This is brilliant. Why aren't the likes of Coca Cola doing it on a wider scale?
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