5.0
( On 5 )

Beehive theft: How to avoid it

person Posted By: Equipo de www.mundoabejas.com list In: Mundoabejas On: comment Comment: 0 favorite Hit: 17191

Protect your hives and bees

We often see in the news cases of theft of hives throughout Spain, detainees accused of a crime of theft, specialized groups in the theft of hives, new techniques of stealing increasingly faster and without leaving a trace, etc.

What is the scope of the problem and how does it affect us as beekeepers?

In newspapers and news, there is almost always talk of "crime of theft" or "continued crime of theft." In August of this year 2019, the arrest of a 61-year-old man was reported for an alleged “continued crime of theft of hives”. No less than 110 hives were seized, with a total estimated value of 9000 euros.

Most of these hives have already been returned to their owners, because they were conveniently marked with hive identification numbers.

Therefore, it is essential to mark each of the apiary hives with the corresponding hive identification number. It can be marked with paint with a sturdy exterior paint. It can also be marked on fire on wood with a hive marker on fire or with a pyrograph. You can also make marks on the wood using carpenter tools, writing the hives identification number making not very deep grooves on the wood.

We recommend (if marked with fire) mark the hive both outside and inside. Likewise, to hinder the thief's task, we can mark all the hive paintings on fire. You can also make the combination of marking the hive on the outside with paint and also mark the same hive on the inside using a hive marker on fire.

We can think that "marking the hives is of no use because then the thieves will cover it and paint on it." But the reality is quite different, since the police know most of the thieves' manipulation techniques, and quickly identify these practices and in many cases they can retrieve the original identification numbers and return the hives to their owners.

In case of theft of beehives, it is essential to report it to the police. As beekeepers we might think "Well, for one or two hives, it is not worth making such a mess of complaints ...". This is a mistake, since for the police each complaint is very valuable and provides very important information that can lead to the arrest of beehives thieves or groups specialized in the theft of hives.

A sad reality is that a percentage of these beehives thieves are beekeepers or have a direct relationship with the beekeeping activity. They can commit the theft of hives either to sell them to other beekeepers (previously erasing all brands and identification numbers of hives that can identify them), or to have them themselves and increase the number of hives in their apiaries (so they can also avoid lose state and European grants that require a minimum of hives per apiary).

From the latest news extracted in the newspapers, stolen hives are given a value that ranges between € 80 and € 125. Beekeeper: Would you sell your hives at € 80 each hive? I think the answer in most cases will be "NO".

Therefore, we think it is better to prevent any type of theft in our apiary.

Each beekeeper will have a particular situation for each case. Apiaries will be found near the beekeeper's house. Other apiaries will be in a mountain area, far from the city. Some apiaries will have few hives. Other apiaries will have dozens of hives.

In addition, there are several modalities in the theft of beehives: taking the entire hive (closing the board and taking all the hives in a cargo truck or in a van or private car); take only the pictures and the bees (the thieves already have prepared their own empty hives and fill them with pictures and bees from the stolen apiary); take only honey (take all honey leaving the boxes completely empty); take the bees (all the bees and the queen can be taken, leaving the hive completely empty of bees).

We recommend several measures:

1. Place GPS locators in frames, hikes or hives: There are several solutions on the market regarding GPS locators in hives, hikes and frames. There are numerous cases in which the beekeeper has been able to recover his stolen hives because he had installed this type of locator in one or several of his hives in real time.

After making a complaint to the police and reporting the existence of this type of GPS, the police have been able to track the signal and successfully locate the stolen hives.

2. Install surveillance equipment in the apiary: there are camouflaged surveillance cameras outside to monitor and alert the smartphone to any intruder or unusual activity in the apiary. The bad of eThis system is that the thief can act with a covered face (and not be recognizable) and even steal the same camera in case he detects it.

3. Alarm in the apiary: an alarm system can be installed in the apiary that secures the perimeter. In the event that the thief enters, the beekeeper will have immediate knowledge by means of a warning to his smartphone and will be able to notify the police immediately.

4. Have insurance that covers the theft of hives: normally, an additional cost is paid to insure each hive against possible thefts. We believe that the annual cost of hive insurance compensates for the possibility of hives being stolen.

Have your hives ever been stolen? Can you think of another legal method to prevent theft of hives? You can describe your case and give us your opinion.

Mundoabejas.com team

Comments

No comment at this time!

Leave your comment

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday January February March April May June July August September October November December

New Account Register

Already have an account?
Log in instead Or Reset password