Sugar-water does not provide the micronutrients and antibodies that bees need to remain healthy. Taking honey for human consumption and replacing it with sugar-water is one postulated reason for lowered bee resilience leading to colony collapse.

I certainly don’t eat honey, but I also don’t plan to eat cheese pizza and still call myself a vegan. If I did, I would call my diet “primarily vegan” instead of “vegan”. There are no vegan police, and veganism is not a badge that you earn, but words do have meaning, and as a matter of intellectual honesty, I try not to deceive. For me, its not about being “vegan,” its about being transparent and honest.

Some people make allowences for some kinds of products for whatever reasons, they do not care about bees so they will eat honey, etc.
or they are vegans for their health so many animal products do not matter to them.

What IS confusing is how animal products or harm to animals can be hidden in all kinds of things we cannot anticipate.
As in, the cultivating of Palm oil destroying, is it orangatans?

The fact that the Queens are artificially picked is a problem for me.

http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm

http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm

Vegans eating honey sounds as stupid and contrary as vegetarians that eat eggs.

Sometimes it is very hard/impossible to avoid a product, but honey is not hard to avoid.

If a, “label,” annoys you and you use animal products, you do not have a problem, ” omnivore,” is not used a lot. lol

I just got a notice of a post on a blog I’m subscribed to (It’s Not East to Be Green) and it made me think of this post of yours (and all the controversy it stirred up!) and I thought you might like to see her post. She’s a vegetarian who eats clam chowder once a year and she talks about labels and controversy and the (lack of) value of criticizing our fellow veg*ns.

http://noteasytobegreen.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/cheating-vegetarianism-and-other-things-on-my-mind/

As far as the discussion at hand, I do not believe that eating cheese or honey “allows” you to be vegan. The argument for cheese not being vegan has been discussed (the worst offender in abusing animals is the factory farm); the best argument I have found for bees is that bees are enslaved by humans. An excerpt from “Why Honey is Not Vegan” (http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm) explains this: “Most honey comes from full-time factory bee farmers. A successor queen is selected by a human instead of the reigning queen – both of whom may have been “artificially inseminated.” Queens can live for as long as five years but most commercial beekeepers replace them every two years, and oftentimes, yearly. “Replace” is a euphemism for killing the queen. There are several reasons for this, which boil down to exerting control over the hive. It is done to prevent swarming, aggression, mite infestation, and to keep honey production at a maximum.”

Anyway, why eat an animal product when there are plenty of vegan substitutes (i.e., agave nectar in place of honey)? The argument that
one does not have access to vegan products is a lazy excuse. It may take a little effort on your part to read labels or cook your own food or develop your own recipes in order to ensure you are eating ethically, but then most things that you strongly believe in are worth that effort. I’m not saying I am perfect nor am I one to judge (think: gelatin supplements and marshmallows), but why do people feel compelled to label themselves as vegan if they are consciously going to eat cheese or honey, even if it’s only on “special” occasions?