As almond trees bloom and cover entire valleys with pink and white flowers, so do beehive thefts. Beekeepers have begun to use GPS tracking devices, surveillance cameras, and other anti-theft technology in order to protect their colonies.
There have been reports of hive thefts elsewhere in the country. Most recently, three hives with about 60,000 bees were taken from a central Pennsylvania grocery chain’s garden. Because bees are in high demand during the biggest pollination event of the year, they occur on a greater scale and in California.
Authorities reported that 1,036 beehives containing hundreds of thousands of dollars had been stolen from state orchards in the last few weeks. The state beekeepers association offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the recovery of 384 beehives taken from a Mendocino County field.
Claire Tauzer posted the reward on Facebook, “It’s hard for me to express how it feels to care about your hives all the year and have them stolen from me.” An anonymous tipter helped authorities recover the majority of the boxes as well as a forklift that were stolen from Tauzer’s family business, 55 miles (88 km) away. They also recovered the items from a rural Yolo County property. One suspect was taken into custody.
Investigators also discovered frames that held the honeycomb belonging to Helio Medina. Helio Medina was another beekeeper who lost 282 colonies a year back.
Medina claimed that the theft had destroyed his apiary so he installed GPS trackers in the boxes. He also secured cable locks to the boxes and placed cameras near them. He drove the orchards nightly in darkness as the almond blossom approached.
“We must do everything we can to protect ourself.” Medina stated that nobody can help us.
Thefts often occur at night when nobody is there and the bees have returned to their hives. The beekeeper, or someone who is familiar with bee transportation, is the rustler.
Rowdy Jay, a Butte County sheriff’s detective, said that hive thieves steal more often than they should and leave the bees alone. She has been following hive thefts in Butte County since 2013.
Beekeepers are likely to be motivated by a shrinking supply and rising pollination fees. These have jumped from $50 to rent a bee hive 20 years ago to $230 per year.
As California has become the largest almond producer in the world, the demand for bees has increased steadily over the past 20 years. The area used for almond cultivation has increased more than twice to an estimated 1.3million acres (526 000 hectares).
The nation’s hives are being steadily increased by beekeepers, who have kept up with the growth. According to a survey of commercial honeybeekeepers, it will take 90% of the U.S. honeybee colonies to pollinate all the almond trees.
Brittney Goodrich, an agricultural economist at the University of California at Davis, stated that this means that beekeepers have been coming from as far away as New York and Florida. To get them all the way, pollinator prices must rise.
Bee populations are known to be unstable because of a variety of factors, including disease, habitat loss, and insecticides.
Last summer’s drought in Western states also caused the decline of colonies. Wildflowers are the ones that provide honey-making nectar for bees, and were devastated by the drought. The beekeepers were forced to artificially increase their food intake with pollen and sugar substitutes. This led to higher costs.
Beekeepers lose income from honey production and future bee pollination if a hive is lost. They also have to pay for the cost of maintaining the hive year round. They claim they barely break even.
“For every $210 that we pay to rent a beehive for the year, we invest close to the same amount in it to feed the bees during drought.” Tauzer stated that we do all the health checks which are labor-intensive and pay all benefits to our workers.
Denise Qualls is a pollination broker that connects beekeepers and growers. She suspects that the thefts are occurring because beekeepers cannot provide strong colonies as promised. “So they can get the money form the grower, then they leave their hives.”
She said, “The grower is just equally responsible when they accept them.”
Qualls joined forces with Bee Hero, a tech startup that enables clients to track their investments. Qualls equipped hive boxes using a GPS-enabled GPS sensor to help them track their investments.
Freeman, who started beekeeping after he investigated his first hive-theft, stated that he recommends beekeepers use security cameras and to put their names and numbers on the boxes.
Some beekeepers tried to tag their boxes with SmartWaterCSI, which is a forensic tool that police use to trace stolen property. This clear liquid can be seen only by ultraviolet light. It is also visible through layers of paint. Police can determine the rightful owner even if thieves attempt to hide boxes.
Freeman teamed up with prosecutors to bring a man indicted for stealing 64 beehives and stealing livestock. California law classifies theft of property less than $950 as a misdemeanor. However, theft of agricultural products worth less than $250 is a felony.
He said, “Stealing one, 10 or 100 hives would result the same charge.”
The man pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced for 90 days in prison and three years probation.
California State Beekeepers Association encourages beekeepers and growers to regularly communicate with each other about the location of their hives. It also encourages them to employ reputable beekeepers that can provide proof of ownership. In the meantime, the almond industry is working to decrease its dependence on bees. It has developed “self fertile” almond varieties, which require fewer bees to pollinate, and invested in research and other initiatives that will improve their health.
Almond Board of California joined , a coalition of environmental, government and agricultural groups in order to create habitats for wild bees and butterflies on privately-owned working lands like cattle ranches or orchards. The $15 million state government funding is being called an investment in climate smart agriculture.
