Do We Steal from Bees? A Fair Answer

The Question

When you learn that honey is the bees’ stored energy, the thought comes naturally: are we stealing their food when we harvest it?

It’s an honest question, and one worth asking.

Honey as Energy

Bees don’t make honey for us. They make it for themselves. Nectar gathered from flowers is broken down with enzymes, fanned by wings, and sealed in wax cells. It is their pantry for the cold months when no flowers bloom.

So yes: honey is their survival system.

The Problem of Extraction

In industrial beekeeping, hives are often stripped bare, and the bees are fed sugar syrup to replace what was taken. This is when honey becomes theft, extraction without balance. It reduces bees to workers and erases the dignity of their system.

A Fair Exchange

But there is another way. In traditional beekeeping, like what we see in Tunisia with makers such as Adel & Aïda, humans take only the surplus. Enough is always left for the hive. The beekeeper protects the bees from predators, gives them shelter, and keeps the colony healthy.

This is not theft. It is reciprocity. A fair system.

Honey as Symbol

Across cultures, honey has never been just food.

• The Greeks offered it to the gods.

• In Sufi texts, honey symbolises divine knowledge.

• In Jungian thought, honey is the gold produced through collective transformation.

The question “is it theft?” opens the door to a deeper truth: honey is both nourishment and meaning. It carries the sun, the flowers, the bees, and finally, us.

The MyChakchouka Way

When you taste honey from MyChakchouka, you are not stealing. You are joining a system. You are sharing in the surplus, with respect for the colony and for the beekeepers who guard it.

Fairness is not new to Tunisia, it has always been the logic of our land. From Ibn Khaldun’s system thinking to today’s beekeepers, the answer is simple: we don’t steal when we care enough to give back.