# Beekeeper stung by thefts



## no1cowboy (May 2, 2004)

GRAND PRAIRIE, ALTA. - High honey prices and a local decline in bee populations are thought to be behind the theft of $60,000 worth of honeybees from Teepee Creek, Alta.

âBasically, they harvested my hives for the frames with brood (the eggs and larva) and bees, and left me with a couple of frames on the outside with bees on it,â beekeeper Bill Termeer said. âIt looked like a normal hive because they put replacement comb back in.

âI think they thought they could get away with it and it certainly took us longer to sort of figure out what was going on.â

The well-concealed theft - in which each stolen frame full of Carniolan honeybees and their brood has been replaced with an empty frame in the rectangular beehive boxes - means about 150 of Termeerâs 3,000 hives will not produce any honey this year and stand little chance of surviving the winter.

Beekeeper stung by thefts | Canada | News | Toronto Sun


----------



## Raeven (Oct 11, 2011)

Incredible. Makes me so sad. I hope somehow the thieves are caught.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Would think it was another bee keeper.
No fear of the bees and had some protection equipment, had frames to replace the stolen ones.
Most of all knew where the hives were. None of ours can be seen from the road.

 Al


----------



## Buffy in Dallas (May 10, 2002)

It shouldn't be too hard to find out who dun it. It had to be a local beek that had quite a few hives and knew the area and probably the victim. The problem is proving those bees are his. Unless he marks his frames and what are the chances of that.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

You also need to figure out how to get in some one elses hive to see if they are your frames if marked.

Now if they would hav had one of those tracking devices in the hive.

 Al


----------



## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Or those homing devices on the bees that we talked about in another thread!!


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Should have had ear tags with a name and phone number on it.
Going out to up date all the ear tags on ours today.
If I had the money I would put a cell phone in each hive too. That way they could call 911 if they didn't know the person/s who were messing with the hive.

 Al


----------



## boiledfrog (Jun 2, 2011)

First check his employees hives....could be an inside job.


----------



## farmerjohn (Jun 11, 2010)

Wow! Who would have thought.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Theift of bee hives is really old news in its self. Thats why there is a company that sells A GPS tracking device. I think it is Mann Lake that has them in their catalog.
With the cost of bees and equipment and people with no morels, one can see why it is happing. I always tell people to place their hives well off the road out of sight, It should also be top secret information not to be blabbled about to even friends.

 Al


----------



## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

I bought some used equipment and actually had to tell the seller that I would come back later. The frames and boxes were all burn-engraved with a bunch of letters and numbers. I checked it out and the guy was legit. He had bought another guy out and then didn't want to do it anymore as he found out he was having stronger and stronger reactions. BUT, seeing that burn mark sure made me think twice. Now I'm thinking it would be a good thing to burn-engrave all my equipment, too. Can't just paint over it as it's really engraved. And you don't paint the frames anyway, so that's easy to spot as well.

I know of a few people who have .... embelished ? ... their hives. Painted flowers and bees and rainbows and such on them. Kinda fun and the bees couldn't care. So be outlandish perhaps, or stelthy and paint them camo colors, or stick them away somewhere that nobody will find them. 

Right now I'm going with putting them where nobody would be brazen enough to go get them... and keeping my mouth shut as to where they're located. tee hee...


----------

