Because you mentioned killing off entire hives because they're sick, I was wondering about what a vegans ethical stance on culling would be and what, if any, situations culls might be acceptable from a vegans perspective.

For example, the beehive which has been infected. Bees don't understand virology or social isolation or even the concept of "passing it on". What do you do when a hive of infected bees breaks up and starts infecting other hives? Desieses can be devastating to local domesticated and wild swarms if left unchecked. Would a cull be acceptable in this situation to prevent more death and suffering?

How about in areas where humans have already tinkered with the food chain and wiped out all other apex predators? In some places, controlled culling of heards of deer is necessary to prevent them from overfeeding and wiping out other species further down the food chain and eventually themselves?

As I understand, most vegans would prefer the natural solutions such as reintroducing apex predators but that's not always possible. Likewise, I don't think most vegans would advocate for a dawinist solution to infected beehives.

I'm purely asking this from a point of genuine interest and not out of any desire to be proven right or wrong so please don't take this as any attempt at point scoring.

Sounds like it's not the honey it's the production system, so honey from wild bees would be vegan. Okay.

I think the point was that many veggies are harvested by farm workers who may also be exploited. The concern about bee exploitation but not focusing on human exploitation is the rub.