As if American beekeepers didn’t have enough to deal with in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD — the mysterious syndrome blamed for devastating losses of honeybees in the United States last year), now there’s a new threat to their hives: crooked humans. A nationwide bee shortage resulting from CCD means demand far outweighs supply for this pollination season, pushing the cost of hive rental as high as $200 in some locations, according to a Business Week report — the kind of money that means crime does pay.
“If you can get 50 strong healthy hives on a medium sized truck and get them to a grower who is desperate for bees in his orchard,” says Kim Flottum, “you can make yourself some good money. At $150/colony, that truckload of bees amounts to $7,500 for a couple hours work. Not a bad night’s haul.”
Beekeepers know that it’s a challenge enough to do the rounds of distant bee yards for the normal purposes of hive maintenance and inspection — imagine trying to arrange round-the-clock protection for those hives sent out to pollination, isolated in the middle of enormous orchards where they may rest unattended for days at a time.
Apparently the incidence of hive theft is high enough that some pollination services are hiding GPS tracking devices inside their hives, to track any unexpected movements, while smaller beekeepers pour money into electric fences, motion detectors, and burglar alarms.
This is not the first time that honeybee thieves have made the news.
Back in 2002, honey prices in Great Britain hit a profitable high when tainted honey from China led to a ban on those imports and a national honey shortage. A rash of hive thefts from outlying yards and bakyards, notably in the Devon area of England, were attributed to the increased demand for honey — in short, hive heists were paying well enough to be worth the risk for well-veiled criminals.
A few “off-beat news” reporters have been playing 2008’s “hive heists” for comedy — but what the jokers are missing is that the consequences may be far-reaching and serious.
When hundreds of hives are stolen from an orchard or field at a critical time of blooming, the odds are slim that replacement bees can be brought in quickly enough to complete the pollination — and that is assuming that it would even be possible to locate more bees for hire. Disrupted pollination means lower yields for important food crops, a negative effect on the farmers’ families and communities, and higher food prices for all of us.
See also:
- Bee hive heist [video]
WCBD-TV / NBC News Channel : San Joaquin, California
9 March 2008 - Beekeepers get stung by hive heists as California nut trees bloom
Garance Burke, Associated Press : Herald, California
6 March 2008
Written by workerbeej
Topics: What's the Buzz?, World of Apiculture