Honey is an animal byproduct, so technically it is non-vegan, but I think that's kind of pedantic because the bees (ideally) aren't harmed by the apiaries, and the relationships is more of symbiosis rather than exploitation.

I've tried explaining this to vegans and they get really hostile about how apiaries are bee slavery and we need to abolish all forms of subjugation and exploitation, and that I'm a colonialist pig for not seeing it that way.

They also talk about some of the problems with large-scale apiary practices. But those problems are very much known within beekeeping communities, and the average small-time beekeeper is as upset as any vegan about giant corporate monocultures spreading parasites and diseases.

The beekeepers are also very active in trying to solve that problem by regulating large-scale apiary practices, monitoring bee colonies, medicating, funding (and participating in) research, etc.. All stuff that most vegans couldn't be bothered to do.

It's a bit like being against backyard chickens because Tyson and Perdue are an evil industrial ag duopoly.

I've known people who called themselves vegan and still ate fish, there are basically no rules

I'm not at all, vegan as a personal trait is a bit of a broad church these days.

There's the people that are mostly motivated by the not-killing-animals thing

Then there's the ones doing it predominantly for environmental reasons

Then you've got the ones doing it for various health reasons

Then you've got people doing it predominantly for cost reasons (fewer here, given vegan is still treated as a luxury aspect in a lot of food categories)

Those groups do not have to overlap in views at all. It's entirely expected for there to be disagreement and purity test drama given that IMO