<< Peter Michaels writes of Minlistics:
> Requirements:
<snip>
> Successful applicants take an oath never to harm a bee.
Then how would they ever manage to gather honey from the hive to make mead? Would they hire Eurmali to harvest honey and thus cause untold damage to the hive? >>
Well, I certainly won't pretend to be an expert on bugs (Sandy, do you want to contribute to this?), but I'm not sure that I'd interpret collecting honey as doing harm. Yes, you are taking away honey (and wax, if you keep the combs) that the bees worked so hard to collect, but it is really "harm?" How strict an interpretation of "harm" are working with? I don't think that beekeepers really kill any bees in collecting honey, and what harm that is done to the hive is not irreperable (if a beekeeper DID harm a hive, wouldn't all the bees migrate somewhere else?). I even suspect that there are "low impact" methods of harvesting honey, that don't upset the hive's ecology too much (and thus would be completely acceptible to Minlister). Someone correct me if I'm mistaken on any of this, I'm going on films I saw in high school to comment here. :)
I wouldn't expect them to hire Eurmali to harvest honey - Eurmali are better suited for providing entertainment once you've already sampled a few drinks (side note: I created a trickster entertainer whose specialty was using Swallow to, well, swallow an inflated pig's bladder, then belch out a dirty limerick in one long, extended burp. A genuine crowd pleaser). I'd expect more than a few Minlisteri mead brewers to have trade agreements with trolls, namely, X barrels of Gorakiki-bee honey in exchange for Y kegs of Minlisteri mead. That certainly seems like an arrangement that would make both sides happy.
robert
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