Beekeepers accused of stealing each others' hives

Beekeepers are suspected of stealing hives out of desperation at dwindling bee populations and a shortage of honey, it has been claimed.

10:38AM BST 22 May 2009

Thefts of up to 100 hives have been reported in Shropshire, Selborne near Petersfield, Basingstoke and the New Forest.

Given the complex skills needed to handle bees, it is thought that the people who stole them will have been beekeepers in many cases.

Police are virtually powerless to stop the raids but have suggested branding or hiding hives or even fitting them with satellite tracking devices.

John Cosburn, president of the Hampshire Beekeepers Association, recently had six hives worth an estimated £1,800 on the black market stolen from his farm at Micheldever, north of Winchester.

"It has got to be someone who knows about bees, I mean would you want to move 40,000 bees?" he told the Independent.

"They would have needed the right equipment and know how to move them without killing them. I assume they were either stolen to order, or it was a desperate bee farmer whose hives had died."

The British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) said it was "very sad" that beekeepers may have resorted to such desperate tactics.

"We've always felt we were a supportive community," said the BBKA spokeswoman, Christine Gray." It's a very unpleasant development."

The crisis in the bee population has seen up to 30 per cent of bee stock lost over the winter, compared to the usual 10 per cent. Various factors have been blamed, including two particularly wet summers and parasites including the varroa mite.

In America, where bees are farmed on an industrial scale, disease has wiped out a third of its population and the decline in the UK means that 80 per cent of honey is imported at present.

The Hampshire Beekeepers' Association vice-chairman, David Nield, said those stealing bees have to take them at least three miles away to deter their natural homing instinct.

"The next month is when hives are most vulnerable because honey is in full flow," he told the Independent.

But at least more beekeepers are coming on line.

The association's New Forest chairman, Nicholas Bentley-Buckle, said the widespread news coverage of the bee crisis had prompted a surge in interest.

"Our membership has almost doubled in the past two years and it is usually people who have heard about the plight of bees and want to help," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/5366292/Beekeepers-accused-of-stealing-each-others-hives.html