Zone 3 and 4

The local beekeepers association has a house with some beehives in the garden. The place is used for educational work. Once or twice a week between April and August small groups of pupils are invited to visit the bees and learn about them.
As I am interested in educational work with bees, I asked if I could assist on these days. Unfortunately, I was contacted only once, but I observed and learned a lot:

• Input (knowledge about the bee) was in form of didactic teaching: a lot of theoretical knowledge condensed in a power point presentation and a monologue
• On the content level, there was a lot of good information about the biology of bees. On the other hand, there was a lot of "advertisement": beekeeping is so important for the world and for honey production; the beekeepers association needs more (young) beekeepers; without humans, the honeybee cannot survive. It all sounded a little like lobbyism for the honey industry. Do beekeepers suggest that bees give their honey voluntarily to humans?
• The practical part was very nice and the children were fascinated by the bees and also touched them. In this active part, I recognized how attentive the kids were.
• In the end, each child got a sweet bread with butter and honey. Sure, they loved it! And everyone got a small jar of honey.
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The beekeeper believes that he contributes something essential to our environment and nature by keeping a lot of bee colonies for honey production.
Politicians suggest that we all need to help the honeybees because their numbers decrease. 
There is a lot of lobby work going on for the bees. Beekeepers associations often offer days for children, where they can learn something about beekeeping.

Who says what?

1. The beekeepers association says that honey is a gift from the bees.
2. Bees work for us and we have to help them, e.g. treat them against the varroa mite or feed them if the area does not provide enough feed.
3. The beekeepers association also says that bees need the human to survive in nature.
4. Beekeepers and bee lobbyists often use a quotation falsely ascribed to Albert Einstein: "If the Bee Disappeared Off the Face of the Earth, Man Would Only Have Four Years Left To Live" (https://tinyurl.com/y7hfzo64)
5. Beekeepers associations say that we need more bees to secure the pollination and to counteract honey bee loss.

What might the "aim" behind the knowledge? Which influence or which desired effect does it have?

1. Most beekeepers really do believe what I outlined in "Who says what?". For most, these are unquestionable facts.
2. Beekeepers normally want to harvest honey. Who would have the motivation to keep bees without harvesting honey?

My view

1. Beekeepers consciously take away the honey from the bees and instead feed them of simple sugar or syrup. It is not a gift that the bees make to the beekeeper. The beekeeper is stealing the honey. The bee colony collected the honey only for themselves and not for a human being that likes to eat a sweet honey bread in the morning.
2. There are several sources that proof that bees can live in a healthy relationship with the varroa mite. But the beekeeper has to accept a decrease in harvested honey. Treating bee colonies with medicaments and acids to control the varroa mite is only fighting symptoms. That is the way our medical systems work as well. Not the cause is treated or healed but the symptoms are fought. In my eyes that is the wrong approach. It helps quickly and in short-term. Sometimes fighting the symptoms is necessary or useful. But in general, it should be the other way around.
3. The honeybee needs humans to cope with the agricultural landscapes created by humans, which are far away from a natural condition. And the honey bee needs beekeepers to be fed after the honey harvest and in monotone landscapes where they can not find enough feed.
4. We partly need honeybees for pollination. Honeybees are very efficient in pollinating plants in comparison to other insects. However, the harvest would decrease or the fruits get smaller, but not disappear completely.
5. Actually, there is no need for more beekeepers. Their number has been increasing for years. The scientist Tom Seeley found out that one bee colony per square kilometer would be optimal for the health of the bees. This density would still secure pollination.