Most people know what it’s like to get stung by a bee. You feel a small object land on your skin, you go to swipe it off, but before you can, you feel the pinch of the stinger entering your skin and the burning sensation starts to kick in.

Nobody likes getting stung by a bee, but bees run our world. Honey bees literally prevent humans from dying. They pollinate every crop on Earth.

H-F has been killing honey bees since the 2017 school year….is this ethical? All of the sudden these yellow, hive-shaped bee traps were spread all around campus to kill the influx of bees that had stung a few students.

I grew up in a house where my mom preached that all forms of life should be considered equal. My mom hated when my grandfather would have my siblings and me step on ants in our backyard. She raised us to have empathy for everything, including insects.

When I first saw these traps I didn’t think much of them, but when I saw piles of bees compiled together in a confined trap, I was disgusted.

The administration could have dealt with the problem in a more humane way especially since the bee population is currently deteriorating at a yearly rate. According to research done by the University of Maryland, 33 percent of bee colonies died in 2017.

This is an insanely high number and the H-F community shouldn’t allow more bees to be killed. H-F has a large garden and plant life all across campus that needs bees which should’ve been put into thought before killing them.

If a few fools got stung by honey bees for swatting and attacking them then relocation should’ve been the response…not murder. They could’ve brought in some beekeepers and try to relocate the bee hives around campus.

The administration did this with the geese. They hired a goose chaser which was a dog that chased the geese off campus. There are more humane approaches to everything.

Beekeeper Alexis Walker lives in New York and has been beekeeping for about 10 years. She keeps two to three hives during colonization season.

“I think trapping bees is a bad solution when you have bees where you don’t want them to be. Honey bees tend not to be aggressive, they pretty much mind their own business and sting only when you’re directly threatening their hive or their queen, or self-defensively, if you partially squash them,” Walker said.

Walker also explained how many communities can have beekeepers come and collect large quantities of bees at a minimal cost or even for free. To contact beekeepers in the Chicago area visit https://www.chicagohoneycoop.com.

This idea really disturbs me because since relocating a beehive can be anywhere from FREE to $1,000, either way H-F definitely has the money to protect the honey bees.

Other than H-F killing the bees, pesticides put into the soil of farmed crops are also a huge factor in the decline in the bee population.

Farmers grow their crops in a pesticide that develops into the plants pollen in which when the bees cover themselves in it, the chemicals attack the central nervous system and cause paralysis and eventually death.

Honey bees also are affected by a disease called AFB (American Foulbrood), this is a bacterial disease that forms larvae which kills the bees with the bacteria they carry. This disease can’t be cured, but can only be limited by the eradication of infected hives.

So there’s a deadly disease, deadly chemicals and now H-F is involved in the slaughtering of hundreds of bees…they can’t catch a break even though humans literally can’t survive without them.