Honeybee Squatters Prefer Water Meters

26 March 2015

Water meter reading is becoming a dangerous profession.  Postal workers delivering mail have their dogs and, now, water meter readers have their bees!  For some reason, known only to the bees themselves, honeybee colonies are taking up residence in water meters.  

Stranger, still, the bees have a real preference for underground water meters.  How do they get into the meters?  Often, through the small key holes that are supposed to be used only by the meter readers themselves.  What’s especially odd about this is that the honey bees aren’t natural underground nest or hive builders.  There are a large number of lesser known bees that do nest underground, but the poor honey-production of these underground bees has kept them out of the limelight.

Worse yet, fear gave way to panic (at least it did if you were a water meter reader) when it was popularly believed that only Africanized honeybees would build nests underground.  So, if there were bees in your water meter, they had to be Africanized -- in other words -- killer bees.  

Africanized honey bees are hybrids resulting from the mating of African honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) and any one of several species of North and South American bees.  All bee species must guard their honey.  In North America and Europe the chief threat to the bees’ honey stores is the famous, iconic honey bear.  But, in Africa, the honey-hungry hive invaders are really fierce animals including the large cats for which Africa is famous.

How did the poor African honeybee survive?  By becoming the meanest, toughest, and most lethal honeybee on earth.   Africanized honey bees can be quite nice -- as long as you don’t go near their honey!  If you do, you’ll find they have no sense of humor -- none.  They will sting first and ask questions later.  The African bee, by the way, is one of the best producers of honey of all the honeybee breeds.   

The Africanized bee is a genuine example of making the most of what you’ve got.  Contrary to popular legend, this bee is just a bit smaller than the common honeybee.  The Africanized bee has the same sting and venom as its European counterparts.  So, what makes it so deadly that it’s earned the name killer bee?  Only one thing.  It’s behavior.  The Africanized bee is more “defensive” than any other breed of honeybee. 
“Defensive” is the, sometimes, misleading word beekeepers use to describe aggressive behavior in bees.   

The Africanized honey bee will attack at the least provocation.  Getting close to their hive is enough.  These bees will follow you for as far as a third of a mile before giving up the chase.  They are fast.  And they are persistent.  In one instance, the victims dove into a pond to escape an Africanized swarm.  After holding their breath for about a minute, they raised the fronts of their faces just above the water’s surface.  Guess who was waiting for them . . . and . . . began aggressively stinging their exposed faces?

Again, there are no bees of the pure African breed found wild in the Western Hemisphere.  The African honey bee (A. m. scutellata) is actually a member of the same species as the typical honey bee you see outdoors, the “Italian bee” (A. m. ligustica).  But bees, like dogs, come in breeds.  And, as in dog breeds, the size, appearance and behavior of different bees of the same species can be radically different.    

Bees of the pure African breed first came the Western Hemisphere through South America.  In captivity, for a series of scientific experiments, an accident allowed about 26 African queen bees to escape.  Since that escape, in 1957, the African bees have mated and produced hybrids.  The speed with which the hybrids spread through the western hemisphere earned the Africanized honeybee the dubious distinction of being possibly the most successful invasive species on earth, appearing in the southern United States in 1985. 

So, Africanized bees have invaded.  But are they taking up stealthy positions in our water meters?  Are the ill-prepared meter readers, unknowingly, in the front lines?  Well, the situation may not be so simple.  After the reports of the Africanized honeybees in water meters surfaced, dozens of reports of common honeybees making nests in water meters surfaced as well.

Bee Master: Bees in Water Meter

City of LaVergne to save endangered bees from water meter

So, where did the idea that all water meter hives were Africanized come from?  Exterminators.  Exterminators have told, and continue to tell homeowners, that the hives in their water meters are surely Africanized.  This information is followed by a warning to the homeowner of possible personal liability if the Africanized bees attack someone on the property.  

Problem?  

Exterminators make money by removing bee infestations.  Professional exterminators are absolutely necessary for the removal of Africanized bees.  If another bee species is involved, removal is relatively easy and a local government agency or beekeeping organization will, often, do the work for nothing.

Why?

Well, honeybee populations are declining at an alarming rate in North America and Europe.  Preserving bee colonies is such a high priority that, in most places, cost free removal is available for any of the common breeds of honeybee.  Preservation of hives and bees is currently a high public priority.  Of course, if the bees are Africanized, the professional exterminator is perfectly appropriate.  Africanized bees are honestly and predictably dangerous.  

Advice?

Call a local beekeeping association or your local government (city or county) and explain the situation.  In many cases, they will arrange to come to your property and actually determine whether or not your water meter (or any) hive is Africanized.  If so, call the exterminator.  If not, arrangements can often be made to remove the bees without cost to you.      

Oh, and this is very important, don’t forget to call you water company and let them know that there is a potentially unpleasant situation awaiting the next meter reader. Then, explain what arrangements you are making to have the hive examined and removed.

But, still, the mystery remains.  What’s so great about water meters that bees want to build hives inside the meter boxes.  The answer may be much easier than we think. Water meter boxes may, accidentally, be designed to be the ideal hive.  

The key or thumb hold opening in the typical water meter box is the perfect size for a hive entrance.  The box, itself, is metal.  So, whether in the ground or high in the air, the hive is secure against honey robbers. The interior of the box is about an ideal size to contain honey and brood combs.  In other words, the water meter box is nearly a perfect, modern, and secure prefabricated home for the modern bee colony looking for a good location, easy access and safety.

About the Author

Scotland Yard’s Police Need Therapy From Honeybee Therapists?!

19 March 2015

A sudden news flash on the TV (or, rather, "the tele") or radio. There’s an armed standoff in London. You listen intently for more information. These kinds of breaking news stories aren’t welcome, but following the unfolding of events can be exciting -- from a distance.

But, if you are member of Scotland Yard’s Metropolitan Police Elite CO19 Firearms Unit, you’re likely to find yourself  “in the thick of it” soon enough. Every week, you spend hours dealing with potentially explosive situations in which you expose yourself to continuous personal danger.

Few can measure up to the training and, then, the crisis to crisis demands of the job. Sadly, fewer can keep-up under the grueling weight of the stress. But, what if there were a way to “de-stress” these brave and highly skilled professionals so they could serve, not just distinguished, but long careers -- in spite of the constant exposure to just as constant danger?

A DE-STRESSING SECRET?

Some, like one armed officer, “John,” deal with the stress easily. “John” has had a long career and coped well with the psychological demands of the job. What is “John’s” secret? Did he come from a long line of high performance police officers and, through a combination of genetics and family environment come to be ideally suited to the demands of his job? Or did “John” know a secret – a secret about managing stress.

In fact, “John” has not a single police officer in this family. The only gun his grandfather, father and uncles carried was a smoke gun. A smoke gun? Yes, a beekeeper’s smoke gun. “John” knew a secret alright. Beekeeping! Beekeeping has an almost magical de-stressing effect.

No one would have ever thought of it. After all, what’s the suicide rate among beekeepers? I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a beekeeper committing suicide! And, you know what? There’s no shortage of professional beekeepers, but there is a persistent fear that a shortage will develop in the future.

Why?

Because beekeepers are, on average, so old. The current median age of a beekeeper is well above 50 years! Could it be that the real problem isn’t attracting "new" blood to beekeeping? The reason for the high percentage of "mature" beekeepers isn't a "problem" at all!   The only "problem" is the rejuvenating effect of beekeeping? Could it be that beekeepers never feel the need to retire?  Could it be that beekeepers are unusually long-lived?

“John” knew the beekeepers' secret. He knew that beekeeping by CO19’s Armed Unit Officers would give them a new lease on their professional lives. But how do you convince the hard-edged skeptics of the modern world. Would anyone believe in the reality of this ancient and mysterious professional elixir?

“John” knew he had to try. And, I’m guessing it went something like this.

First, “John” made an appointment with the Metropolitan Mayer to propose the idea. But would the mayor listen to this -- only too simple -- solution to a serious problem?

“John” was confronted with a cordial greeting, but a serious look from London’s Metropolitan Mayor, Boris Johnson. “Good to see you, John.” “I don’t doubt your good intentions, but I’ve heard it all.” “I don’t know what kind of pop-psychological solution you are going to propose, primal screaming, natural foods, . . . whatever, but let’s get on with it.”

But, even before “John” could reply, the Mayor suddenly looked preoccupied. Gazing out the window at the city, the Mayor quietly revealed his thoughts. “We’re trying to deal with another emergency right now.” “Honeybee populations are declining throughout the UK.” “I have to find a way to encourage more Londoners to keep honeybees.” (long pause) “But, anyway, John, what’s your proposal?”

“John” had struck upon the magic moment of opportunity.

The Mayor’s Capital Bee ­programme would receive support from a new club formed by members of the CO19 Armed Unit. “John” persuaded his bosses to grant £525 for the purchase of two hives and protective suits for the new Met Police Beekeeping Association.

The meeting between members of the CO19 Armed Unit and their therapeutic honeybees was done in a way that would feel most natural to both groups. The CO19 officers, wearing protective clothing and gloves, gathered near the hives. They were briefed on their objectives and the risks before confronting the bees. The officers handled the situation with their typical skill -- to date, no stings have been reported.

The honeybees --these small creatures -- quietly buzz with a style of flight that makes them, sometimes, seem to almost float in the warm summer air. Of course, bees can’t speak. Instead, they dance or move in certain patterns to communicate. Bees of the honeybee species, Apis mellifera, are thought to be the most natural therapists of all insects. But every rule has an exception. So, all of the A. mellifera family are natural therapists -- except the cousins from Africa, the infamous Africanized honeybees.

CROSS-TRAINING?

The opportunity for cross-training has not escaped notice. While the Scotland Yard’s CO19 officers are looking to learn to relax a bit more on their down time, honeybees have started anti-terrorist training learning to sniff out explosive chemicals. This elite bee unit, the “Bomb-lebees,” work in a hand-held detector and stick out their tongues when they smell explosive chemicals.

CONCLUSION

You can almost picture a CO19 Officer relaxing in his backyard on a weekend afternoon. His hive’s bees gently float in the air throughout the area. A lone bee approaches -- gently hovering. Quietly, the officer recounts the story of a tense professional standoff with a nervous, though potentially contrite, suspect. The officer explains how tensions built as the minutes ticked by . . . .

Gently and quietly the listening bee dances a message to the off-duty officer, “But how did that make you feel?” In another backyard, nearby, a lone bee hovers patiently by another off-duty officer while quietly dancing the message, “I think it’s time for us to talk about your relationship with your mother.” The officer swallows with a look of guarded relief as he begins to recount a childhood experience.

About the Author

French Honeybees: Persecuted Artists or “The French Connection”?

5 March 2015

[humor]

            The situation seems only too typical.  Honeybees in Northeastern France, moved by a sudden wave of creative inspiration, began work on one of the most ambitious artistic projects in history – or, at least, in honeybee history.

THE DISGUISED OPPORTUNITY

            One day, a foraging honeybee smelled sugar.  And bees, well, they can’t resist anything sweet.  Pursuing the smell to its source, the curious seeker was suddenly bedazzled by an unexpected sight.  The source of the sugar smell was in a rainbow of colors.    

            The place was Ribeauville, France, a couple of miles away from the hive.  There, a bio-gas plant was “processing” M&M Candy shells in all of their multicolored glory.  The bee must have been stunned.  Then, regaining her composure, she began gathering the multicolored sugar.  When she returned to the nest, she added her share to the sweets gathered by the hive's bees that day. 

            The bees did their own “processing.”  And, when the sweets had been turned into honey, these bees got a surprise.  A few of their sister bees had made contributions that seemed to be blue.  When added to the already amber-yellow honey stores, this produced green honey. 

BATTLE FOR ACCEPTANCE

            One can only imagine what happened next.  Certainly, the colony’s sense of propriety was shocked -- at first.  Surprised and suspicious of this unexpected change, many bees were comfortable enough with the traditional brown tones of honey.   A bright green?   Well, that bordered on scandal! 

            But, as the days past, the rumblings probably stopped.  Many of the colony’s workers enjoyed the new color.  Bees are highly organized in their dealings with the world, and variety and diversity, are not so very common virtues in the traditional society of the honeybee. 

            But variety is the spice of life.  Soon the bees were buzzing with interest and excitement over the new color.  Some may have held out.  But, then, when the hive's queen visited and pronounced the new green color delightful, it became the “this season’s rage” in Northern France. 

MORE COLORS

            But the hive was in for another surprise.  The new green color was a combination of the yellow of natural honey with the blue of the new colored honey.  As the colored honey increased, the green gave way to a true blue matching the shade of the M&M shells that provided the pigment.

            This hive of bees was on its way to a rainbow of honey colors: yellow, green and, now, blue! The bees probably felt that their colony was in the forefront a new honeybee artistic movement.  Maybe this was the dawning of a new artistic age of bee culture: a honeybee renaissance.

UNFAVORABLE ATTENTION

            Little could these poor honeybee artists have realized that they were being watched by unseen eyes.  Jealous eyes.  Human culture welcomes and evolves with variety and change – at least -- as long as humans are the authors of the innovations.

           Undoubtedly, in the early spring of that year, some food producer, somewhere, was adding an approved dye to honey to change its color from amber to green.  Why?  Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations.  What could be more expected in the season of green beer, bread, and green just about everything else?

            When human beings do it, its fine.  But when honeybees threaten to steal the creative spotlight from human artists, the game changes.  France has official “Standards of Honey Production.”  The honey of our artistic bees “deviated from the standard color of honey.”  The blue honey of the Ribeauville bees was banned.

            If a human processor wants to add green or blue color to the honey, later, . . . no problem.  To that human processor goes the credit for the innovation and the profits from the sales.  Apparently, honeybees are not allowed to create different colored honeys themselves.  If the bees try to do it, naturally, they will be stopped! 

            Of course, this hurt not only the creative bees, but the beekeepers.  Undoubtedly the beekeepers pleaded the case of their artistic bees.  Why can’t the bees color the honey themselves? Surely, this unwelcome, second appeal caused some irritation.  So, an almost forgotten regulation was retrieved from the bottom of the closet, dusted off, and used to silence the artistic bees once and for all.

            That regulation states that honey is only honey if it is entirely obtained from the nectar of plants.  No matter that processors could add dyes to the honey later.   No matter that the processors' dyes weren't from "the nectar of plants"!  The regulation was cleverly written to assure that bees can add nothing to honey.

          So, the honeybees were not allowed any original contribution.  Their job was to gather nectar and make amber-yellow honey.  Then, after all the work was done by the honeybees, it’s the job of human processors to add colors and gain the profits and credit for these innovations. 

BEE DEPOPULATION OR A “BEAT GENERATION” OF HONEYBEES?

            With this kind of repressive environment, you have to wonder what’s really going on with decreasing honeybee populations these days.  The cause, CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder), is not defined in terms of the confirmed bee deaths.  Rather, bees leave the hive and never return.  Everyone assumes that these absent bees have died.   But, again, you have wonder.  Maybe the bees are just tired of the drudgery. 

            Maybe, somewhere, in a clearing in the midst of some forest or on a plateau lost in some remote mountain range, swarms of disaffected bees have gathered after they just “dropped out” of mainstream honeybee culture.  Retiring to these concealed sanctuaries, these bees have formed their own artistic and intellectual communities unfettered by the conventional roles forced on them by human society and the mores of traditional beekeeping culture.

            Wherever that lost world may be, just imagine.  A land full of honey in a rainbow of colors.  A land where honeycombs are built in just about anything and given a variety of novel shapes.  Bee colonies (or communes) experiment with new honeycomb arrangements hoping to discover a new feng shui of hive design.  Bumblebees roam free over ranges of natural grasses – ranges never despoiled by lawn mowers, industrial agriculture or, worst of all, the evils of outdoor landscaping!

            At any rate, the artistic bees of Ribeauville may soon attract more unwelcome attention from government authorities.  More questions will be asked about the source of these bees’ artistic inspiration.   Sinister questions.  It all starts with the color blue or, rather, blue honey.

            Once upon a time, there was another kind of “blue honey.”  It was called psychedelic honey.  And the question may be asked, “Are the artistic bees of Northern France just artists or are they psychedelic bees?"  But here, "psychedelic" doesn’t refer to a type of art.  The term has a darker meaning.

BACK TO THE 60’S 

            There’s another way to make honey turn blue.  It involves a mushroom.  A particular kind of mushroom.  With a little aging, psilocybin mushrooms ground up and mixed with raw honey will turn the color of the honey to blue.  Not only does the blue color escape into the honey, so does the psilocybin.  What is psilocybin?  One of the more potent, natural hallucinogenic drugs popularized in the 1960’s.  As late as 1996, jars of blue psilocybin honey were confiscated at the border between Holland and Germany. 

            Could the Ribeauville bees have been involved in the drug trade!?  I doubt it.  Their hives, honeycombs, and ability produce honey of any color would have been affected by rampant drug use.  I don’t believe that these honeybee artists started their renaissance under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.  The accusation is just one more attempt to stifle honeybee creativity.  

            I would like to see these poor bees allowed the freedom of artistic creativity they deserve.  A rainbow of honey colors is absolutely delightful -- particularly in a culinary world in which decorative colors are added to many, if not most, foods.  At the same time, I hope these bees keep a good perspective on the reach of their creative vision.  I have to admit that I have a more traditional side.  At least, I prefer my bees in yellow and black. 

About the Author

See also:

The Blue and Green Honey
Blue Honey and Mushrooms

Reference to:

"The French Connection"
Beatnik
feng shui

Hungry Honeybees or Stool-Pigeons?

5 March 2015

[Humor]

            Didn't life used to be simpler?  And, when life was simpler, so was crime.  In the old days, if you were a criminal transporting illegal contraband -- a controlled substance, like marijuana -- you could just put it in a container and write “not marijuana” on the outside. 

            Sounds too simple, doesn’t it?  But I have to admit, I’ve never heard of anyone getting caught with a controlled substance in a container labeled to assure the searcher that it wasn’t contraband.

            But that simple world came to an end, last weekend, in Lincoln, Nebraska, when police searchers ignored the words, “Not Weed,” written on the outside of a plastic sour creme container and opened it.  What did they find inside?  Weed – also known as – marijuana. 

            Who could have suspected this bold move on the part of investigators?

See: Nebraska police find pot inside container labeled 'Not Weed'

            Since the unraveling of the organized crime families in the late 20th century, wall after wall of protection for criminal activities has collapsed.  Organized crime was based on loyalty.  But as celebrity beckoned, insiders were willing to sell their stories to Hollywood and enjoy their 15 of fame.  But many believe that the biggest issue was drugs.  Organized criminals couldn’t resist their own products, narcotics.  And with drug-use, everything unravels. 

            But some loyalties remained.  Bronx neighborhoods are still close-knit communities in New York City.   There, you can trust your neighbors to look out of you.  And, then, there were the bees.  You could always expect your neighborhood honeybees to “watch your back.” 

            At least, that’s the way it used to be.  Maybe all the new bees flooding into the city in the last few years have made that sense of neighborhood disappear.  Or maybe, what drugs were to the old crime families, high-fructose corn syrup has become to honeybees.

            Not so very long ago, bees from bee yards (apiaries) in the Red Hook section of the Bronx began to turn . . . red.

            The bees didn’t become completely red -- just their stomachs, which seemed to always be filled with a red liquid instead of nectar and pollen.  But where would bees find something so red that was so sweet?

            Well, Red Hook is, also, the home of Dell’s Maraschino Cherries factory.  What are maraschino cherries?  They are those bright-red sweet cherries used to top-off ice cream confections and decorate mixed drinks.  Again, they are bright-red and sweet with sugar.  Is this where the bees were getting their stomachs filled with a bright red meal?

            To the factory’s beekeeping neighbors, this seemed like a joke.  It was the factory’s owner who contacted the city to ask about problems with honeybees.  More and more bees were invading the factory.  The owner was worried that a bee might get into the cherries.

            About this same time, local beekeepers were having the "red gunk" eaten by their red bees analyzed.  And what did they find?  Red Dye #40 – the same color additive used in the manufacture of maraschino cherries. 

            The factory owner allowed New York City Beekeepers Association (NYCBA) founder, Andrew Cote, unrestricted access to the factory.  With a thorough investigation it was determined that the bees were slurping-up cherry syrup from cherry vats as these moved outside onto the sidewalk before being promptly moved back into the factory facility.  The solution was simple: cover the vats.  Problem solved.

            Or, at least, one problem was solved.

            During the investigation, the New York Times published a piece called “The Mystery of the Red Bees of Red Hook.”  And this dredged up another mystery from the past.  Six years earlier, an informant had told a postal inspector that there was a giant marijuana farm operating in the basement of the cherry-making factory. 

            Problem: this was “hearsay” and wouldn’t support a search warrant.

            Six years earlier, the factory had been carefully watched, but no drug traffic hauling marijuana out of the factory could be found.  The building plans had been consulted, but the plans included no basement.  The owner had been followed, but did nothing incriminating.  Still, the case file remained open because drug sniffing dogs had reacted outside the factory, but that wasn’t enough to justify a warrant and a search.

            Now, 6 years later, after the story of the red bees broke, the District Attorney asked the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to investigate the possibility of illegal or unsanitary disposal of “runoff” from the manufacturing process.  The strange case of the red bees had opened an opportunity, an excuse, for a search warrant.

            The DEC searchers found nothing. 

            With the next election, there was a new District Attorney anxious to clear away old cases.  Using the runoff, again, as an excuse, the DEC made a final search focusing on a garage attached to the cherry factory.  Behind a false wall, they found a stairway to a basement -- a basement that wasn’t supposed to be there. 

            Down the stairway was the biggest marijuana farm every found in New York City: 2,500 square feet of farm with 120 grow lamps and a complex irrigation system.  The farm was a multimillionaire dollar operation likely producing 3 to 5 harvests a year. 

            Without the red bees, the farm would have never been discovered.  Why couldn’t the bees “lay off” the syrup for sake of their neighbor’s operation?  Ok . . . ok!  The law is the law.  And a marijuana farm in New York City is illegal. 

             But there’s still the question of neighborhood loyalty.  The bees and the factory were neighbors. They were neighbors!  In the Bronx! 

           And . . . and . . . and . . .  

            What are we saying?  These are honeybees.  Asking a honeybee to stay away from sweet sugary syrup is like asking an ant to stay away from a picnic or asking a dog not to bury a bone.  The bees can’t help themselves.

            Conclusion: you can still trust your local honeybees to keep some of your secrets.   But not when a sugar-sweet meal is at stake.  They just can’t resist! 

See: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

About the Author

Bee Rustling?!

26 February 2015

BEE RUSTLING!?

            Bee Rustling?  Recent events have drawn a lot of attention to the crime of bee rustling.  But, when most first hear about bee rustling . . . well, let’s just say that this crime seems to spring up out “out of left field.” Rustling is the theft of livestock.  And honeybees are, legally, treated like livestock in many jurisdictions.  Sometimes "rustling" is used to describe the theft of hives with the bees inside.  Then, "theft" is used to describe removing the bees from the hive and carrying them off.  But there's no real consistency in the names given to the crimes.

            Live-stock rustling is old . . . very old and, apparently, common to almost every culture on earth.  Rustling isn’t hard to understand.  A person’s or community’s livestock are a valuable resource.  Cattle are raised for meat and dairy products as well as providing leather for clothing.   Sheep are also raised for their meat, but provide wool for cloth and clothing.  Even ostriches are raised for their feathers (factoid: these very large birds can be repeatedly sheered for their feathers like sheep are sheered for wool).

HOW, EXACTLY, DO BEES GET “RUSTLED”?

            Actually, there are two ways to rustle by honeybees.  The first can involve nothing more than pulling up in a truck and taking some standing hives.  Beehives must be kept in the open for the benefit of the activities of their insect occupants (pollination and honey-making).  Taking whole hives to another location is about the fastest way to do the crime.

            But there’s another, more complicated but, surprisingly, popular way to do the crime and conceal your doings at the same time.  If you don’t want the theft detected, you open the hive and remove the “valuable” parts and leave the rest behind.  

           What are the valuable parts?  (1) The queen – the mother of every bee in the hive . . .  and . . . (2) the brood comb.  The brood comb is the nursery housing the next generation of worker bees and queens.  After you've taken the queen and brood comb, you can leave the rest behind and re-close the hive.  Weeks may pass before anyone will be able to tell that the colony is dying.

            But doesn't the bee-rustler want to take the honey?  

           Actually, no.  The bees will make more of that quickly enough.  And rustlers often aren’t after honey-money anyway.

HOW TO GET RICH KEEPING BEES

            The best way to understand bee rustling is to remember exactly what ranchers hope to gain by raising livestock.

            Money.

            But is there that much money in honey?

            The answer to that question is, most often, “no.”  But most of the money in modern commercial beekeeping isn’t from honey anymore.  About 40 years ago, a beekeeper might ask local farmers to allow hives to be placed near their farms’ crops.  Sometimes, beekeepers were even forced to pay farmers to allow pollinating honeybees near a farm’s crops.  After all, the bees would use the pollen to make honey.  What could the farmer expect to get out the deal?

            Fast-forward 40 years.

            Bees are in short supply in agriculture.  Particularly large farm operations are absolutely dependent on their crops producing seed for the next season.  Even more significantly, without pollination, many plants and trees won’t produce fruit at all.  And fruit production is very profitable. 

            But there are also nuts.  The nut is called the almond, one of America’s most profitable cash crops.  Without bees, few almonds would be produced.  Problem?  Bees are in short supply and almond growers need pollinators.

FARMING CHANGED

            We hear a lot today about declining bee populations in North America and Europe.  But, surprisingly, the pollinator shortage wasn’t caused by declining populations -- at least not in the beginning.  Instead, agricultural operations, the farms, grew in size and, then, grew and grew and grew some more.  The profitability of almond production rose so much that California’s almond orchards have grown from thousands to millions of acres in just a few decades. 

             Even before honeybee populations began to decline, the growth of agriculture outpaced the growth of honeybee populations.  So, in the beginning, the bees weren’t dying, the farms were growing.  Only, later, did bee populations begin to decline.

             Considering the growth of agricultural demand, the news that honeybee population were declining was met with tremendous concern by growers.  Admittedly, the growers' view of "shortage" is a bit different that the naturalists' view.  To the growers, declining bee population, mean expense.  The fewer bees, the more it costs growers to lease the services of those available.  To date, there remain enough bees to go around, but as bee populations move downward, the price of renting the bees goes up.  Of course, commercial beekeepers are getting "the long end of stick," as individual hive rental prices climb higher and higher.
  

BEEKEEPING BECOMES BIG MONEY

            Beekeeping “old timers” will speak of the days when it was struggle just to keep body and soul together in the beekeeping business.  There’s always been a healthy demand for honey, but not so much profit that beekeeping didn’t have its good times and bad.

            Now, almost every commercial beekeeper in the United States leases their bees out as “pollinators.”  And almost every commercial beekeeper in America will visit the almond orchards of California this spring – as they have for many springs past.  How much can you make per hive.  Well, you can get paid $200.00 for rental of one hive for just a few days.  And, when the smoke clears, you’ll likely have made almost $100.00 profit over and above all your costs.  

            Oh, there's something else.  . . .   How many hives does a single beekeeper bring to the almond orchards in the spring?  The larger operators bring 10,000 to 20,000 hives.  We’re not just talking serious money.  We’re talking serious net profit.

HOW TO MAKE EVEN MORE FROM EACH HIVE

            But wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have any costs.  If the $200 rental fee per hive went right into you pocket without any investment of time, materials and effort.  It’s a nice dream.  Money for nothing.

            Well, honeybee rustlers have found a way to make that dream a reality.  Let the beekeeper/owner of the hive bear the costs.  All the rustler has to do is hit the road in January of each year (just before the almond pollination season).  Troll the areas around the almond fields.  No one can watch all those hives every minute of the day and night.  When no one’s looking, just pick up a few (or a lot of) hives. 

            Spring in the almond fields is a wild time with growers and beekeepers trying to connect during a short season.  There will be short-falls when some expected bees fail to arrive.  Filling those unexpected gaps isn’t just a good market, it’s a great one.  At the last minute, a rustler may be able to rent their stolen hives out for more than the average market price.  And the rustlers don’t even have to come back to pick the hives up.  They can just take the money and run.

BIG MONEY ATTRACTS ATTENTION

            If you understand beekeeping and bee behavior, this sort of rustling can be easy.  But to pull off this “steal and lease” operation you have to stick with the “quick” type of theft.  You take the whole hive.  You can’t pause to take parts of the hive, install them in your own hives and wait for them to mature.

            The problem with stealing the whole hives, for the rustler, is that it increases the chances of getting caught.  Most hives have names branded into the wood and serial numbers attached.  The serial numbers are assigned by beekeepers as a group working through their own association.  But even with these identifiers,  bee rustlers do just what auto thieves do.  They file off the brands and numbers.  Still, they may get caught in the process or the hives may be recognized by color or design.  

            A government sponsored national registration system for hives might help.  But all the added record keeping will only help recovery, not prevent theft.  A GPS solution has been proposed with a system sensitive enough to detect the relatively small surface movements that a bee rustler might make in stealing and leasing a hive to an unsuspecting grower.  But these distances are small enough that a sensitive system is required.  The needed GPS units are really too big to be conveniently installed in your average hive.  And, when you’re dealing with hives numbering in the thousands, GPS units become too expensive.

            For now, business is profitable enough, and rustling limited enough, to allow most beekeepers to absorb rustling loses.  But as farms expand and bee populations decline, the rental value of each hive increases.  And every increase in value adds to profits -- on the "up" side.  But there's also a "down" side.  Each hive becomes more tempting to bee rustlers .
  

            Unfortunately, honeybee rustling is a crime that seems to have a future.  With the agricultural industry  constantly increasing in size and bee populations steadily decreasing, the value of honeybees as pollinators isn’t expected to decline any time soon.  

About the Author

 

“The Jesse James of the Bee Hive Industry”?

19 February 2015 

'Time was, when beekeeping was a pretty tame way to make a living.  Getting stung by your own bees was your biggest worry.  After that, if your bee-yard (apiary) was in the northern or western U.S., honey bears could be a problem.  But if you could deal with these dangers, beekeeping was, otherwise, smooth sailing.  

After all, beekeeping always had its good and bad times, but there were no roaming outlaws to worry about.  It wasn't like the old west.  There were no criminals who prayed on beekeepers like Jesse James once prayed on railroads.

But, to hear some tell it, times may be "a-changin'."

David Allred became the first person to ever be convicted of bee theft in the state of California. The Los Angeles Times reported that, at his 1977 sentencing hearing. Allred said that he wanted to be remembered as the “Jesse James of the bee hive industry.”

By the way, Allred denies having ever said any such thing. But I’d deny it too, if I were being sued for damages resulting from another bee theft.  How did Jesse’s . . . er . . . I mean . . . Allred’s sentencing hearing come out? Well, according to him, he was freed. According to the state of California, Allred was sentenced to three years in prison.

Whether or not Allred expressed a wish to be remembered as the Jesse James of beekeeping, he scored another first by being the first person ever sent to prison for “bee-rustling” in the state of California.  But bee-rustling wasn’t the only crime with which Allred was charged.

Together with fellow beekeeper David Graves, Allred marched into the history books, again, as the greatest proven mass-murderer of bees in all of honeybee history. Using cyanide gas, Allred and Graves sent 15 million of a neighboring beekeeper’s bees “to the promised land.”

The court found that Graves was unhappy after the victim beekeeper married Graves’ ex-wife.  So, with the assistance of Allred, Graves retaliated by killing the victim’s bees. There are no laws against killing bees -- and this must seem like a big legal loophole . . . especially if you're a honeybee!  But there are laws against killing your beekeeping neighbor’s bees.

The charge was vandalism. 

The court apparently didn’t believe Allred’s alibi. He testified that he couldn’t have committed the crime because, at the time, he was alone in an orchard with a 16-year-old girl playing strip poker. (I did stop to seriouly consider his“excuse” . . .  because . . . well . . .  if I were going to “make-up” an alibi, I could sure do better than that.)  Allred says his conviction was overturned on appeal. But, again, the state of California disagrees reporting that Allred entered prison in 1977 and was only released in 1983.

Now, Allred has been accused of another bee theft. Is he modestly asserting his innocence? Has he mellowed with age -- chastened by his prison terms and contrite over his misspent youth as a notorious bee-napper and killer?

Not at all.

In fact, Allred says, in so many words, that he’s tired of being "persecuted.” In fact, he has announced, more or less, that he won’t be “Mr. Nice Guy” anymore!  Allred says he “won't deal with the law again.” He claims a judge told him that “[w]hen the legal system fails you,” and your property is taken, “it's your right as an American citizen to take it back yourself.'"

Kind of makes you shudder . . . doesn't it?

About the Author

Read more about the David Allred Story: “Take the Honey and Run”

The Mystery of the Moondance Bee-Napping

19 February 2015

A "wave" of bee-napping (or is it bee rustling?) struck Alberta, Canada in May of 2012. Moondance Honey owner Bill Termeer has, or had, about 3,000 colonies in Alberta. In May of 2012, his employees noticed some hives were missing. The final count came to 154 missing hives and about 3 million bees. The losses translate into cash – about $60,000.

According to Rodrigo Mendez of the Alberta Beekeepers Association, bears are usually the greatest danger to hives. Termeer himself is now adding parasites, diseases, and “winter kill” to the list. None of these are threatening Termeer’s own bees. Instead, he believes these threats have killed some of his neighbor’s bees. And some “neighbor” is helping himself or herself to some of Moondance’s honeybees and hives.

Honeybees don’t exactly hibernate during the winter, but do retire to their hives and live off of the hive’s stored food -- honey and pollen. Parasites, like the verroah mite can infect honeybees with disease. And disease can thrive and spread even in warm, but overly-damp, hives during the winter months. This can cause a lot of bee deaths. In fact, this is, often, the cause of what beekeepers call “winter kill.”

But, whatever the reason for this crime, the thief is not impulsive but, instead, a careful planner. Some of Termeer’s hives have been opened and the bees removed. Each hive must have one queen. But Termeer has discovered hive after hive with missing queens. And that is serious. Queens must be replaced if the hive is to survive. But queens and workers aren’t the only thing missing.

Someone has taken the “brood combs” out of his hives. Brood combs are where the queen lays her eggs and workers tend to, and nurture, young bees. The brood comb theft is especially elaborate because the thief actually opened the hive and removed the wooden frames in which the bees built the brood combs. Then, the bee-napper replaced the brood comb frames with “other” frames containing “starter” combs, but no brood.

The discovery of the strange frames was the final tip-off that this was a theft -- a well planned and careful one. Tremeer has made a video, “Bee Theft 001,” to demonstrate how this stealthier kind of theft looks.

We can only breathe a sigh of relief and be glad that bee-napping isn’t a major criminal industry.  But wait, you'd better not hold your breath . . . . 

About the Author

In "Bee Theft 001," Bill Tremeer demonstrates explains what bee-theft looks like: