There's a perception in the vegan/vegetarian community that beekeepers are perpetrators of animal abuse. They mishandle bees, stealing from them and working them into the ground by harvesting their hard-earned product. David Rukin, one of Florida's most prolific beekeepers, thinks otherwise. "The reality is, everything in Mother Nature is an overproducer," he says. "An apple tree, for example, produces all those apples, but it doesn't eat apples. The apples are for other creatures to eat. Humans are takers."