Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Bee News => Topic started by: Perry on July 09, 2016, 09:29:23 pm
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http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-great-bee-heist-distraction-multiple-vehicles-and-the-cover-of-darkness-used-in-theft-of-10-colonies
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What can we do? Hope someone saw them. It want be long before every move you make is recorded. Could be the only upside to keeping thieves at bay.
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I have actually bought some Bee Dry, winter wraps from Debbee, very nice woman. Here is a link to her website and another version of the news story. The thing that bothers me, this has to be done by someone with a fair bit of knowledge of bees. Almost like stealing from your own family - disgusting!
http://debbeesbees.ca/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/bee-hives-stolen-portland-ontario-1.3671002
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"Almost like stealing from your own family - disgusting!"
Agreed 40, feel so bad for her! I like the idea that she sells such wonderful healthy bees, and people are willing to pay the price.
I hope all these stolen bees just up and abscond! Just disappear leaving the thieves empty handed.
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These bees have been in this ladies family since 1848. Dang, that is a long time. It's Sunday morning, and I have to caution myself about not hating anyone on this the Lord's Day, but it would sure be easy to despise a thief, especially one that stole bees from a lady. She thinks it was probably someone who had worked with a beekeeper and knew how to handle the bees. Did any of you aspiring beekeepers notice that the article noted there was a larger demand for bees each year. A hint, selling bees may be more profitable than selling honey.
lazy
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I felt so bad for her as she teared up. Not only did she lose her bees, she lost a livelihood......just awful!
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Ya know what? If there was a Go Fund for her, I would donate in a New York Minute!
Fortunately! she is a seasoned beek, and will know how to quickly increase her apiary again. Would like to donate to help her with an electric fence.
I also find it interesting that the thieves left some hives behind... Like, we'll take most of your fortune but leave some change behind so you can start all over again.... >:(
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From what I have been reading this has been the third heist of hives in what I would say is a 2-300 mile radius in the last year or so. Someone really knows what they are looking for and what they are doing. I know I only have five hives, but if someone ever stole them I would be devastated.
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!0 hives is the number that will fit in the back of a pickup truck box.
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Ten hives, that make sense, three rows of three and a row of one. That's a perfect fit. Or, maybe one row of four and two rows of three, another perfect fit. :):):)
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Ten hives, that make sense, three rows of three and a row of one. That's a perfect fit. Or, maybe one row of four and two rows of three, another perfect fit. :):):)
:yes: :yes: :yes:
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Is that fuzzy math? :laugh:
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3 up against the cab of the truck 2 sets with entrances facing each other between the wheel wells (4) and 3 more across the back. There is not enough room to put 3 10 frame lang's between the wheel wells
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This story breaks my heart. Dirty rotten no goods! I think the husband is off base about the Google Earth claim. This was someone who has been a customer or a former employee. It didn't appear that she was completely wiped out, but the nucs alone were valued at over $3300. I bet she marks her colonies, installs security cameras or some sort of security system now.
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@apis:
I was pulling your leg.
lazy
as stated above, fuzzy math
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She had a security system, she just didn't pay attention to it.
Ya gotta listen to your dogs!
We get so complacent and lazy. Our dogs bark, and we just want to pretend everything is OK, so we roll back over in bed and go back to sleep.
I'm guilty of this, too.
The dogs do their job, but we don't do ours.
That makes it all the more difficult when it happens. All of the "if only" self-incriminations start up in our heads.
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My dogs won't let up when they start barking, especially at night. We've had a few false alarms. And that's when we start to become complacent. So we ignore the alarm, tell the dogs to zip it and go back to sleep.
This poor lady was distracted and it sounds like her hives were far away from the house. Maybe I'm being naive...but isn't there someway to find where her hives went??? For sure those idiots had to have a place to get all the honey processed. Right??
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I just heard that a beekeeper in this area lost 30 nucs to thieves. His nucs were branded and had his phone number on the boxes. This is a felony. I hope he/she gets caught.
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Someone stealing branded nucs is in, or going to be in, the bee business. This often happens with cattle that are branded and micro marked. The rustlers are cattlemen and keep the cows for production. The same is probably true with bees. If a beekeeper steals 30 nucs this year then next year he may be able to sell an additional three to four thousand pounds of honey without having to outlay six to eight thousand dollars for the nucs. This could be a profit swing of 25 to 30 grand. That is a lot of money to an unscruptulous beekeeper.
I belong to the Texas Southwest Cattleman's Association. They have rangers that pursue cattle thieves, rustlers if you will, and they sometimes just lose cattle that are never seen again. This is caused by someone stealing a high dollar cow and using it for brood stock over the life of the cow. It saves a two to three grand initial investment. The same could be said for bees.
lazy
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They weren't stolen for the nuc boxes but for the bees inside. The branding of the nuc box will only prove ownership, once the frames are transferred into hives and the nuc boxs disposed of who is going to know where the bees came from or if they were stolen.
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I have seen branded frames. That's OK, but easily hidden. At least a branded frame can't be passed on in another nuc for sale. apis is right. Those nucs were stolen for the bees. The wooden ware has probably already been burned.
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The problem with branded frames is that they are in the hives hidden out of view and a person making nucs is most likely selling them also. Unless you know who stole the hives and can go through them with in a few weeks to identify them as yours. after a month they will be 5 out of 20 brood frames in a hive With a brand on them from a known nuc supplier. Unless there is special shades of color or numbers marking the queens Identifying the stolen bees becomes next to impossible.