Giant bee sting claim as hives go missing

A SURF COAST beekeeper says he is devastated after a third hive heist in two years.

Anglesea’s Michael Noakes said thieves stole eight of his hives, containing about 500,000 bees, last month.

He suspects another beekeeper may be behind the sting, which he has reported to police.

“They stole two hives with queens in them, that’s 20 years’ worth of genetic material gone,” he said. “It has to be a beekeeper who’s taken them because of the way it’s been done.”

Mr Noakes keeps his hives in five locations around the Surf Coast, checking them weekly.

During a routine inspection, he said he instantly noticed the missing hives.

He said four or five hives had been taken from a site at Bellbrae and three from a site along the Great Ocean Road at Torquay.

Late last year, 16 hives containing about 1.1 million bees went missing from Mr Noakes’ Bellbrae site.

And in 2017, about 1000 Ligurian bees disappeared from his Bellbrae farm.

Each hive contains about 70,000 bees, and although he has 17 hives remaining, Mr Noakes said he was deeply saddened by the loss of his bees.

“It’s not a hobby for me, it’s my bread and butter,” he said.

Anglesea Leading Senior-Constable Trevor Purcell said police needed solid evidence to investigate the alleged thefts.

“There’s a real lack of evidence and we’re unsure if there’s been an offence committed.” he said.

Sen-Constable Purcell said procedures for tracking down missing hives would be to check hives in the region, but Mr Noakes’ hives had no identifiable marks.

Mr Noakes said he had been plagued by bee thefts and hoped his missing bees would be returned.

“I don’t know what I’ll do next, I might have to get detectives hiding in the trees,” he said.

He said he fell in love with beekeeping 30 years ago and enjoyed tending to his hives.

“It’s not such a task for me because I really love them,” he said.

Because the bees are a rare and valuable species — originally from northern Italy — they are easily identifiable.

Beekeeping circles believe Ligurian bees are the last genetically pure strain of the species left in the world.