http://fox40.com/2013/03/20/bee-thefts- ... al-valley/ I can't believe the nerve of some people. This is a terrible thing to do.
I really feel for Mr. Cox losing all those bee hives. However, and I'm not trying to justify the theft in any way, I can see how someone could be desperate enough to steal all those bees. If you are watching your business going belly up because there are no bees to pollinate your crops it must be so hard not to give into temptation. I just hope that with the $10,000 reward being offered that Mr. Cox will get all his bees back again. Hopefully the thief will have a guilty conscience after seeing the news and return the hives.
Eileen, I can't believe anyone not in the industry would do this. That is a lot of stings if you mess up. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. I certainly hope they are caught, too.
Working with bees is not for the faint of heart. I dropped a full box all over my feet in the dark one night . I broke my arm several years before and had a"catch" in my wrist, as I was putting the super back on top my wrist wouldn't move any farther and I sat the super on the edge of the hive. as soon as I let go, the box literally fell apart, since there is nothing holding the frames into the box. (The frames all set on a rail and slide freely back and forth creating the beespace by hand as you put the hive together) Everything fell apart all over my feet. The bees were less than happy with me and I had to stay and put it all back together. No one was there to do it for me. I got a few stings, but not to bad. But no one is going to touch a hive if they have no clue what to do to keep from getting multiple stings from a colony. So, obviously it was some one who knows how to work with bees. Dirtballs!
It seems that these days if its not nailed down it will be stolen,..and even nailed down is nearly a thing of the past to be considered safe.
