Is a vegetarian diet that hard a concept to understand?

Foutainpen, I understand the misgivings that some vegans have about honey, but well managed honey bee colonies will not suffer from normal beekeeping practices, in fact they will thrive. They will be monitored for health and protected from the worst frosts of the winter. I know there are far more species of bumble bees etc than honey bees, but honey bees live in much larger colonies and are therefore very significant pollinators in our ecosystem.
Eating any crop at all will entail endorsement of farming practices that may not seem entirely "natural", including protection from pests (which may therefore starve and die). Unless someone is prepared to exist on only wild, foraged plants, they're buying into organised agricultural practices that have sustained humanity for millenia. Bee keeping fits into this system without causing any cruelty to the bees.

grannyticktock, if you get honey from a local beekeeper she will know where the hives were situated and what flowers were out at that time, if the hives were near fields of rape, for instance, that is a very distinctive honey, it varies a lot,in colour, smell, taste, how long it takes for it to go hard and viscosity , heather, clover too, borage or lime are all very distinctive honeys. You can watch the bees going in and out and see where they are going, and what colour pollen they bring back. Mostly unless it is from hives near fields of flowers, most honey is a mix. If anyone really wanted to know you can check under a microscope as pollen grains are different shapes. Honey bees can't gather nectar from all flowers, some flowers need bumble bees with their longer tongues. I don't think hives of bees disadvantage bumbles , it is the flora round the nest that does and you are less likely to have insecticide sprayed if there are honey bees around, as the farmer needs them for pollination
Many years a bee colony will produce more honey than it needs for winter, so harvesting that surplus is not harmful. Sometimes a hive produces no surplus so sugar syrup is a lifesaver there. What is wrong is removing what the bees need for the winter and replacing it with syrup, but a good beekeeper won't do that

We have vegetarian friends, one eats fish and all cheeses, the other doesn't eats fish and only certain cheeses.

It can be a bit confusing for us meat eaters so I checked with them, the first time they came for a meal.

One year, for our sons partners, I cooked a vegetarian gluton free dinner for Christmas . The rest of us tucked into the turkey.

Whoops, that should have been gluten free.

Oodles: yes, my late husband was a beekeeper. He did give the bees sugar syrup to replace the honey he took, to make sure. they had plenty to get through the winter, but as you say, sometimes the sugar syrup acted as a topup if the supply in a hive was low, while other hives had a surplus. It all depended on the strength of the colony but also on the weather and the forage available at key times. There certainly wasn't an issue with transport costs and air miles, as the honey was eagerly gobbled up by family and friends and also by local people who were keen to buy local honey (and it did taste superb!).

I would recommend anyone to try a jar of honey from a local beekeeper. The flavour will depend on the blossoms available in the area, but a good honey will make the blended supermarket varieties taste like golden syrup.

We are lucky locally we have 3 or 4 independent beekeepers and I always have a jar of local honey in the cupboard!

grannyticktock - there are videos of industrial honey harvesting around and it is not a gentle process.