# almond bees stolen



## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

572 hives stolen around the Kettelmen city area, blue pallets with brand 35-25. They went missing around the 7th of March. Thanks for looking.


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

Scumbags.


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

your hives? :-(


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## MichaBees (Sep 26, 2010)

You got some pictures?


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Not my bees, but a good friend of mine got his stolen. I will try to get some pics


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## virginiawolf (Feb 18, 2011)

Too bad there wasn't a hidden trail cam or something. Thievery is among the lowest things and deserves to be punished. I hope it is a mix up ? or they catch the criminals.


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## Hogback Honey (Oct 29, 2013)

Virginia, that is what I was thinking, there are tons of options out there for hidden cameras.


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

That is an aweful lot of hives taken in one spot! I hope they catch these guys, better yet, I hope the beekeeper catches them first! Simply amazing, pretty soon nobody is going to want to bring their bees to almonds due to the amount of theft, is it time for a security gaurd to be provided by the growers in the contract?


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

Post some pics if possible. You never know if someone might spot them. Good luck, the stealing this year is the worst ever. It would help if the law would put these guys away for a long time after they are caught, too.


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

BeeGhost, there was some talk about hiring someone to just drive around all night to keep an eye on things during the pollination. Don't know if that would help or not.Maybe if enough patrols were out and about looking for suspicious activity.


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## Redbug (Feb 8, 2014)

I'm new to beekeeping and certainly don't know anything about the commercial side. 

Somebody stealing a hive or a bunch of hives has got to be a beekeeper or someone that knows a lot about bees. What does someone do with stolen hives that have ID's on them? Do these people resell the hives or are they hiding them far away and selling honey later in the season? It seems the hives will be found sooner or later no matter where they are. Is there that big of a black market? I just don't get it.


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## Bradley_Bee (May 21, 2008)

All these hives are being stolen around the area I have all of mine, I'll be going up today to group and ship . I'll keep my eye out for the dirt bags.


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## Shouse (Jul 1, 2010)

BeeGhost said:


> That is an aweful lot of hives taken in one spot! I hope they catch these guys, better yet, I hope the beekeeper catches them first! Simply amazing, pretty soon nobody is going to want to bring their bees to almonds due to the amount of theft, is it time for a security gaurd to be provided by the growers in the contract?


Our largest grower provides locked gates and has 24 hour security. Private security guards at night are there to watch the growers equipment as well as our hives.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Little more info via a link provided to me by a friend: 

http://www.kmph-kfre.com/story/24938366/beehive-heist-someone-steals-200000-worth-of-bees


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Red, typically they move all the frames and bees into new boxes or their own boxes and junk the branded stuff.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Time for all of us to step up to the plate and keep our eyes open. Beyond that we need to get the incentives and disincentives high enough to get this trash to stop. 

Seeing how the state of California is really not so inclined to adopt my preferred disincentive of utilizing a valley oak and one very strong used tie down rope I am willing to offer a positive incentive to anyone who helps catch these scoundrels. Not much of a grand gesture compared to the other rewards being offered but I am willing to offer up to 100 queens on me to the first person who provides the adequate information leading to the arrest and conviction of the slime who are perpetrating this or other bee thefts in California. I want the reward high enough that someone is willing to keep their eyes and ears open as well as giving some "associate" balls to get the profundity out of their pockets and into their mouths.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Honey-4-All said:


> Time for all of us to step up to the plate and keep our eyes open.
> I am willing to offer a positive incentive to anyone who helps catch these scoundrels. Not much of a grand gesture compared to the other rewards being offered but I am willing to offer up to 100 queens on me to the first person who provides the adequate information leading to the arrest and conviction of the slime.


Well said, Phil. I will match that also, with a pallet of sub shipped to your door step for info on the where abouts of Paul's hives.


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## Stingy (Dec 14, 2010)

It's going to be a sad day when beekeepers have to put lo-jacks on their hives to make sure they don't walk away. 

Terribly sorry for those that are getting hives stolen, its bad enough you have to contend with CCD.


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## Redbug (Feb 8, 2014)

JRG13 said:


> Red, typically they move all the frames and bees into new boxes or their own boxes and junk the branded stuff.


Thank you JRG. I understand now. That's pretty bad to go to those lengths for someone's bees. That's like cattle rustling.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Some of that is assumption Red, mostly they're trying to get bees to fill pollination contracts. Otherwise I'd assume they head straight out of California with the bees where no one is going to recognize the boxes or brands.


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## WPG (Mar 28, 2010)

H-4-A and N-B guy, proud of you guys.

I'd like to give them swimming lessons with my 30' chain.

Oh, and I have some extra rusty ol barbed-wire laying around here somewhere.

But I'm too far away to do anything.

Git'em.


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

I heard today that a guy out of the Turlock area had his hives shakin over a period of a few nights. My almond grower even heard about KJ buddies hives being stolen! So word of mouth travels fast even through the growers. And Yes, it's very noble of Phil and Keith to offer up their products as a reward to catch these dirtbags.


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## MichaBees (Sep 26, 2010)

So, what is the future of pollination if this continues to happen?


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## babybee (Mar 23, 2012)

Locked gates would help!


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I have a fine bridge across Cutbank Creek I would like to sell you.


babybee said:


> Locked gates would help!


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Vance G said:


> I have a fine bridge across Cutbank Creek I would like to sell you.


We have had several holding yards and orchards where there were locked gates, sure helped a person sleep better at night.
Sheri


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## larrybeach (May 25, 2013)

Overall I would like to think beekeepers are a better group of people than others. Always a few bad apples I guess, no matter what you do or were you are are. I hope he gets lucky and gets his hives back and they catch the ones who stole them.


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## ArtSmart (Sep 29, 2012)

It seems there are a lot of posts lately about bees stolen. I would suggest start using SPOT GPS tracker If everybody started using it, the thieves would probably be "off the market" by now.


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## Ben Little (Apr 9, 2012)

Who is responsible for reimbursing the beekeeper when the hives are out for pollination and a theft happens ? I thought if you rented to a grower it was the growers problem if they were damaged/ killed/ stolen ??

Ben


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## jredburn (Feb 25, 2012)

Calif has 850,000 + acres of almond trees so a guard service would have a lot of ground to cover. 
A friend of mine had a few hives stolen last year, the thief took the hive stands, the bottom boards, the frames, the bees, and the top covers but left the boxes. They had his name painted on them. We looked into RFID tags and they are readly available, quite cheap, easy to install, easy to hide and the handheld readers are getting cheap. You can positivally identify a piece of equipment with them. But the problem is how do you get a reader close to all the boxes out there. There are 1,600,000 hives in the almonds that you would have to locate and scan.
The one idea that might work is the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) that boat users have in their boats. They activate when the boat sinks and broadcasts the GPS location. They could be modified to activate only when the pallet or box is moved. They would then broadcast their location as they were moved.
Just a thought


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## Redbug (Feb 8, 2014)

Thanks for the replies JRG13. I have been thinking...

Do you guys have insurance on your hives? I am not a commercial guy...that's why I am asking this. But that's not what I want to talk about...

Here's something you should look at...I have a tractor and thought about this...this thing will send you a text if whatever you it attached it to...moves. You can see it's location on Google maps. And you can set it for different variables, too. Cost is around $100 plus around $100 a year for a service plan. And it would be a business expense. $200 is pretty good for piece of mind.
http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=128#

Click on service plans:
http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=109#Retailer

Instructions:
http://www.findmespot.com/downloads/SPOT_TRACE_User_Guide.pdf

You would need to place it in a hidden place. It can be mounted under wood...but not metal. A top wooden cover would be perfect. If a few of you guys got these things...you could probably put the thieves out of business with the law, (or in the hospital), depending on how you handle it. Word would get out. You guys should keep each other informed as you get them. 

One option...it sits in-active, then when your bees goes missing, you activate it, pay for the days of activation, find your bees, then suspend the activation till next time. Or just buy the full time activation and bee done with it.


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## ArtSmart (Sep 29, 2012)

jredburn said:


> The one idea that might work is the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) that boat users have in their boats.


 EPIRB? Really!? Why don't you wire it straight to the national emergency broadcast network while you at it. This way they can send national guard when your hives are stolen  EPIRB sends a *distress* signal via satellite to emergency responders around the world (in the US that would be the Coastguard) These units are pretty big. They can not be modified to send a signal when the box is moved. They are only activated manually or when submerged. 

You don't need to invent anything in this case. Just use an off the shelf product. SPOT GPS tracker is relatively compact (can be concealed under the cover or a bottom board) is around $100 (you don't need one per hive, just one per location). You sign up for a cheap annual service plan and it will notify you as soon as it starts moving and continue to send position updates so you can track your hives anywhere on the globe (except for South Africa). Yes, the thieves can eventually find it after they move your hives and when they start going though all them. But the idea is to notify you as soon as a hive starts moving. This way you can notify police immediately and keep them apprised about any further movement of your stolen property.

RFID can be handy in identifying your equipment, however if thieves discard boxes it is not going to help you much. Besides, first you need to find stolen property before you can identify it.

@Redbug - We are basically talking about the same thing.


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## Merl (Mar 4, 2014)

I hope he is cought and put away and so far back he won't see daylight for the next 100 yrs. I am just a hoppy keeper but he still needs cought.


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

The noose is getting tighter.


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## BeeGhost (May 7, 2011)

Right on, keep us posted on who the scum bags are!


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## mgolden (Oct 26, 2011)

There was a theft in northern Alberta of quite a few bees by taking a NUC sized number of frames out of hive c/w queen and replacing the frames. It wasn't until the apiary owner was doing the inspections and came across the odd frames that it hit the media.

Another theft potential to be aware of. And I would think it is only be a matter of time to rotate out branded frames.


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## mark williams (Jan 19, 2003)

Sure hope they are caught. Keep us updated,
IMO,one thing wrong is the courts don't take it that serious.Although it is a lot of money & loss for the beekeeper & family.
Several years back here where I'm from,There was a farmer that had apple tree farm,Not a real big op-,But he did have afew 100 trees,Anyway he had his own bee's on the site.When some teenage boys thinking it was funny I guess went in & knocked ever one of the hives over,
They was caught & the farm carried them to court.The judge stated Boys will be boys,Gave them a fine to pay & that was it.
Guess what? The county got the fine money,But the farmer was still out his bee's.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

mgolden said:


> replacing the frames.


Seems a bit thoughtful for a thief. He could have simply left gaps where the frames went.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

beemandan said:


> Seems a bit thoughtful for a thief. He could have simply left gaps where the frames went.


This moa used to happen often on sharecrop situations. I once chatted with an AZ beek that banded the frames in to keep the plugs from flying. Interesting way to deter someone you are trusting to give you your "share."


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## G3farms (Jun 13, 2009)

I had five hives stacked out with capped honey supers on a university campus that raised crops. was told I needed to remove the hives since they were in the way of them building a new pond and were stinging the dozer operator pretty bad (these were the small black German bees back in 1983). Went to pick them up and was told we could use their tractor with front end loader. To our surprise someone had come in and robbed all of the honey and returned the wet supers. Was a sad ride home but at least I still had all of the wooden ware and bees.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

Being at this time of year, I wouldn't be surprised if they just break the hives down and sell them as nucs. Sorry about the loss and hope they find them soon.


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## G3farms (Jun 13, 2009)

Anything ever come of this?


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