Local hives stolen

[Little John]

I'm sure there's a lot of truth in what you say, but the problem with solving the 'rogue beekeeper already amongst us' scenario is: how on earth do you identify such people ? (visions of WWII fifth-columists, etc ...)

And of course such people probably want the bees for themselves, and not to sell - but even if they did sell them later on, how do you tell stolen bees from legit bees ?

It does seem odd that humanity is capable of putting men on the moon (allegedly ), but unable to come up with a solution to bee-thefts.

Thinking caps on ...

LJ

 

[pargyle]

I'm sure there's a lot of truth in what you say, but the problem with solving the 'rogue beekeeper already amongst us' scenario is: how on earth do you identify such people ? (visions of WWII fifth-columists, etc ...)

And of course such people probably want the bees for themselves, and not to sell - but even if they did sell them later on, how do you tell stolen bees from legit bees ?

It does seem odd that humanity is capable of putting men on the moon (allegedly ), but unable to come up with a solution to bee-thefts.

Thinking caps on ...

LJ

I don't think it's a rogue beekeeper amongst us ... I think it's a beekeeper (or perhaps just a bee-seller) outside of the regular beekeeping community but the trouble is that, as long as there is a desperate shortage of bees - and you only have to look at the other thread today with the BBKA stating 40% winter losses - there will be people prepared to buy them.

In addition, beekeeping is a very 'open' society - it's not difficult (if you are a beekeeper) to have some idea of where, in an area, hives are likely to be sited and know that they are going to be there year on year. I haven't looked on google earth but I suspect that anyone could identify groups of hives given a bit of time on a computer. It's too late now but perhaps we should all have been camouflaging our hive roofs in out apiaries before the google earth photos were taken and published ?

I will say, again, the only way to have some chance of preventing hive threats is a deterrent ... a big chain and padlocks, a bucket of concrete with a big hoop set in it buried in the ground under the hives. It won't stop the determined thief - but it might just send the opportunist somewhere else. It's pointless having any security measures that just identify hives ... you need a deterrent.

Another idea I though about was to mount a battery powered shed alarm under the floor of the hive with a contact breaker wired to the lid of the hive and any supers. Noise ? Strobe lights ? and a chain that makes life difficult ?

The other option was to have the hive stand mounted in those metal spikes that go into the ground for repairing fence posts and then screw the hive stand's legs into them. Again a chain that goes over the hive and under the stand with a big padlock is going to secure the hive.

There's a lot of options and with the value of bees and honey if you don't secure your investment then you could lose it. I'm not interested in catching the thieves, they will just get a smack on the wrist if it ever came to court - stopping them is a much better option.