Beekeeping should be allowed in suburban neighborhoods

Thank you again for your response. Now, continuing on... Definitions: Refute - to prove wrong by argument or evidence. "My response refutes your first argument because you stated that a bee will not sting you, unless you go provoke its hive. And the only way to extract honey is to make physical contact with the hive and take the honey forcefully." I agree with your statement, but it still does not refute mine. In simpler terms, I said that if you go to the hive and provoke it, you have the possibility of getting stung. If you do not provoke the hive, then you will not get stung. Is that clearer? By using the definition of the word refute above, you did not prove my statement wrong by argument or evidence. It is the beekeeper's choice to bee keep and it is an assumed risk that the beekeeper will get stung. However, the bees are of no risk to neighbors since the neighbors are not extracting the honey. "This refutation makes absolutely no sense. Of course there's already a biodiversity of plants and flowers. Bees have already been introduced in North America and they're increasing biodiversity and creating some. Allowing people to bee keep will not change this effect, for the bees have already been here. There will be bees in our cities and towns as long as there are nectar and pollen-producing plants. Outlawing beekeeping tends to replace domesticated bees with wild bees, but does not make bees go away [3]." Aside from the plagiarism in this argument from the source he provided, my opponent fails to realize that there are pests, threats, and diseases among bees and only assumes that bees will always be here if there are nectar and pollen-producing plants. The same case is for any animal. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon in which honeybee colonies lose more than 30% - 90% of their colony at any given time. The cause of this disorder is unknown, but beekeepers worldwide have suffered substantial losses, sometimes entire hives disappear within a matter of weeks [1]. Honeybees are essential to agriculture in the US. In California, the almond crop uses 1.3 million colonies of bees, half of all honey bee colonies in the US. That number was expected to be 1.5 million colonies this year. The demand for honeybees is rising, while the number of honeybee colonies is decreasing [2]. Parasitic Varroa mites feed on body fluids of honeybees and wild feral bees at any age group. Varroa mites also can carry a virus that affect the young brood [3]. Acarine mites feed on the airways of the bees and can also kill entire colonies. The increase in pesticide use has also been associated with dead bees[4]. There are numerous more pests & diseases that have caused honeybee & native feral bee populations to decline as well, just look at source number 3. My opponent's claim that bees will always be here if there are nectar & pollen producing plants is false because he did not consider other factors such as disease and pests. Wild bees are just as susceptible to disease as domesticated bees are. "However, all the articles and pages that are about beekeeping call it so easy. Again, this leads to my point that the beekeeper will become overconfident and possibly careless." Not once have you listed a source that has lead to a catastrophe resulting in a mismanaged hive. Beekeeping is not that hard anyway, with one hive you only have to check up on the hive once a few weeks [5]. The articles and pages that call beekeeping easy are probably true, since they have experience in the subject. You're saying beekeeping is hard, yet you aren't experienced in beekeeping. "Anyway, casualties do result in making contact with bees [1]. Those who are allergic to bees can greatly suffer from the sting. Even for those who are not allergic, bee stings can be dangerous [2]. A 39-year-old Arizona man died last week as a result of receiving more than 300 stings from a swarm of Africanized bees, or so-called killer bees. And the Africanized bees have recently begun to move to the southern parts of the United States." Those who are knowingly allergic to bee stings should always have epinephrine with them as a precaution because it treats the effects of anaphylactic shock which could otherwise kill a person allergic [6]. Africanized bees are not kept by beekeepers so this irrelevant to the debate. "...the two successful ways mentioned having nothing to do with leaving a bowl of water out. That would be an extremely ineffective way and not a good way to raise your bees." Extremely ineffective & not a good way to raise your bees? None of your sources suggest your statement. Keeping a bowl of water is actually recommended by a lot of sources [7][8][9][10]. I have no idea where you're getting your information. "There are many instructions for taking care of a hive of bees and they don't seem very easy. Why was a whole page written about the art of beekeeping? Cause it is clearly not easy." Last time I checked, you do not have any experience in beekeeping. How can you say something is hard without trying? Even without experience, not one source you cited suggested that beekeeping is hard. "I made the argument that neighbors will be extremely annoyed. That's why beekeeping should be made illegal so that people can hear themselves think, and if beekeeping was legal, it would immediately be rallied against by neighbors." I already refuted this argument in Round 2, yet you did not try to refute me when I said there would not be a lot of noise because bees are enclosed inside a hive, where sound would be muffled by the walls and ceiling. Beekeeping is already legal in a lot of suburbs, yet you fail to provide a source that says that people in these neighborhoods are rallying to make beekeeping illegal. Thus, your statement is false because you have failed to provide evidence. "They constantly produce a humming sound that can seriously annoy neighbors. Just search "bees are annoying," and you will get plenty of hits." Vuvuzelas & Carpenter bees have nothing to do with beekeeping, so your statement is irrelevant to this debate. "As I stated, there will also be failure in economical development." I am not convinced. Why would there be failure in economical development? If a person chose to leave their job in favor of beekeeping, another person would take their place. Haven't you seen the unemployment rate in this country? Due to the disease problem, beekeeping would actually promote economical development since there will be a need for beekeepers in the future [2]. "In the past years, due to colder weather, many queen bees have died and worker bees cannot fly out and they die due to lack of food." What does this have to do with the debate? You said queen bees die due to colder weather, not to beekeepers, so this statement is irrelevant to the debate. I have refuted all of your 8 points in Round 2. Beekeeping should not be illegal in suburban neighborhoods because of the benefits that I have listed. My opponent failed to show that beekeeping should not be allowed in suburban neighborhoods with any evidence that backs up his claims. I have proved him wrong with evidence from several sources, but the sources he provided did not match up to what he was saying. It is clear that I have made a case for myself and that I should be the winner of this debate. Vote Pro! Sources: 1. http://maarec.psu.edu... 2. http://www.ars.usda.gov... 3. http://en.wikipedia.org... 4. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu... 5. http://www.beekeepingsuccess.com... 6. http://www.hmc.psu.edu... 7. http://www.bees-and-beekeeping.com... 8. http://kaufmann-mercantile.com... 9. http://www.ediblecommunities.com... 10. http://charearl.com...