Thieves on the island of Angelsey are hijacking bee hives, and they're likely renting out the bees and their queens to farmers to pollinate their crops.
With the global collapse of bee populations, the crime is becoming quite lucrative.
Katie Hayward of the Felin Honeybee Education Centre has been hit twice in the last month. Thieves made off with 45,000 bees and four queens. How does one steal that many bees or for that matter any bees?
Katie Hayward: They've gone into the hives, and they brought along what's called a nucleus box. And they've done what's called a bee shake, which is where you hold the frames over the box and you shake the bees in. So they could be stored in the boot of any car, unfortunately.
Then they don't take the actual hive that you have built?
Katie: No. The hives that they've taken the bees from, that they've stole from, we've bred for calmness 'because we teach children with them. So they knew exactly what they were taking and the value of them. And there's been a huge surge in beekeeping as a hobby. And the demand for new nucleuses has risen over 75 percent in the last five years."
Listen to the full interview below.
Image: Felin Honeybees
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