Halting our hive thefts
As the honey industry turns into a money-maker, hives are increasingly the target of thieves. Who’s behind these crimes and how can they be stopped? Aaron Leaman reports.
Ashort drive north of Whanganui, nestled beneath several dozen avocado trees, live nine queens. To enter their pastelcoloured realms demands care and skill.
Perhaps it’s the plumes of smoke that suddenly fill their surrounds, or the chill of the spring air, but on this particular morning the tiny kingdoms offer little resistance as beekeepers Georgia Young and Leanne Herewini open up the nine hives.
The beekeepers come bearing food – sugar syrup and ‘‘pollen patties’’ – to help bolster the hives after the cold winter months.
Young and Herewini work for Kai Iwi Honey, and help tend to
1500 hives. Curiosity and a love of working outdoors drew the pair to apiculture. ‘‘As a beekeeper you get to be outside, listen to the birds, and work with a great crew of people,’’ Herewini says. ‘‘It’s a privilege.’’
About 80 kilometres away, at the Newbury Hall, near Palmerston North, Herewini and Young’s boss, Chris Valentine, has ditched his beekeeper suit to attend a meeting of the Southern North Island Beekeeping Group.
The group has 64 members and meet monthly to share ideas and to offer one another support.
After two poor honey seasons, that support has become invaluable. While bulk honey prices for ma¯ nuka honey have remained buoyant, unfavourable weather has seen honey yields drop in the North Island.
Valentine has been a commercial beekeeper since 2003 and knows inclement weather is part of working outdoors.
More frustrating, and potentially far more damaging to the industry, is the raft of hive thefts plaguing parts of the North Island. Valentine has been hit five times. On one occasion,
50 nucs – small honey bee colonies – were stolen.
Reports of stolen beehives are routine, casting an unfavourable light on an industry that promotes itself as a world leader.
New Zealand is the 16thbiggest producer of honey globally but the third largest in terms of value, thanks to demand for our prized ma¯ nuka honey. Only China and Argentina sit above us for earnings.
In the year to June 2017 export revenue from
New Zealand’s apiculture industry reached $330m. Together with income from pollination, the sector has aspirations to be a billion-dollar earner by 2028.
Apiculture New Zealand chief executive Karin Kos estimates beehive theft costs the industry millions a year but is reluctant to put a specific figure on the problem. While a stolen hive can leave a beekeeper $800 out of pocket, the greater cost is the loss of seasonal earnings.
‘‘It’s devastating for our beekeepers to have hives stolen and it creates all sorts of issues such as the potential spread of pests and diseases,’’ Kos says.
In the eight months to last December there were 260 reported incidents of hive theft compared with 84 cases in the year to June 2016.
The increasing rate of thefts comes amid unprecedented growth in the industry. Five years ago, New Zealand had about 400,000 registered hives. Today, the figure is nearing
900,000.
Hive thefts tend to be more prevalent in Northland and the central North Island. In September last year Western Bay of Plenty police recovered several hundred beehives in a raid at a property in Whakamarama. The raid revealed a hive ‘‘chop shop’’ where stolen hives were being rigged for sale.
‘‘There are certain hot pockets, but we have got a very big industry and I liken beehive theft to growing pains that come with that,’’ Kos says.
A potential aid in efforts to combat the problem is a centralised database being worked on by police to ensure information about thefts is shared efficiently.
Apiculture NZ has also set up regional representatives who work directly with local police to pass on intelligence about hive theft.
Senior Sergeant Alasdair Macmillan, national coordinator for community policing, says a lot of work has gone in over the past three years to help officers gain a better understanding of the industry.
Previously, when a beekeeper reported a stolen hive, an officer would note the approximate value of the hive but few other details were recorded.
Today, the beekeeper’s registration number is recorded along with a description of the hive boxes and the make-up of the frames inside. ‘‘We note whether the beekeeper’s number was engraved, painted or branded on the hives and whether the frames were plastic, wood et cetera,’’ Macmillan says. ‘‘It’s about getting more comprehensive intelligence.’’
The database on hive and apiculture-related crime is constantly being added to. Macmillan hopes a platform can eventually be created which will give authorities the ability to quickly cross-check registration numbers on hives with the registered owner. Theories swirl on who is behind the thefts. One popular theory suggests it’s former prisoners who have learnt beekeeping skills behind bars. There have been a few cases of former inmates being nabbed with stolen hives but Macmillan reckons they are the exception. ‘‘There would have to be a hell of a lot of former inmates out there trained to even be responsible for 10 per cent of the thefts.’’
There’s no doubt, however, organised crime is activity in the industry. ‘‘It’s organised because you don’t randomly go through the bush or farmland and stumble across 100 hives and systematically remove them. You have to have the vehicles and you’ve got to have the equipment to lift them.
‘‘There are rumours that some of the outlaw motorcycle club gangs are involved in it because it’s more lucrative than P. Certainly if you get caught selling stolen honey, you’re not going to get the same penalty as if you were dealing meth.’’
Few will openly say it but some suspect many of the thefts are being carried out by dishonest beekeepers.
Wellington man Frank Lindsay has been beekeeping for almost 50 years and remembers when hive thefts were rare.
In those days, beekeepers were paid $4.60 a kilogram for ma¯ nuka honey. Today the golden commodity can fetch between $45 and $100.
Lindsay has been hit twice by thieves, the latest only a month ago when five hives were taken. He suspects unscrupulous beekeepers are to blame.
‘‘There’s one guy we call the midnight beekeeper because he only steals on fine midnights.
‘‘It’s enormously frustrating because, just like a dairy farmer knows his cattle, you know your bees. You’re looking after a unit. Even though it’s just lots of stinging insects, it’s a unit that you get used to and it’s all in your head and you become attached to them.
‘‘To then have it swiped out, it’s just gut-wrenching actually.’’
Some beekeepers have invested heavily in technology, such as GPS devices that record a hive’s location or alert the owner when they are moved. Others have invested in surveillance cameras or pressure pads that send a signal when a hive is lifted off its site.
Beekeeper Gary Sinkinson, who operates out of Colyton, north of Palmerston North, bought GPS devices after he had eight hives stolen in 2016. His eight trackers cost $375 each.
The trackers proved a deterrent but ran on Vodafone’s 2G network. The network was shut down in January, rendering the devices useless.
‘‘Technology can play a role but the cost can make them restrictive and you’ve got to be able to justify the cost,’’ he says.
And it appears hive raiders are becoming wise to the use of trackers and other electronic security devices. Arataki Honey,
which has divisions in Hawke’s Bay and Rotorua, has been targeted five times in the past two years. However, in three of the raids, only the frames inside the hives were taken.
Tracking devices are typically placed inside the hives or in the pallets the hives sit on. ‘‘The trend definitely in the last 12 months has been to only take the hive components rather than the hives themselves,’’ Arataki Honey beekeeping manager John Walsh says.
‘‘They might also think that by taking the frames and leaving the hives there’s less chance of it being identified further down the track if they do get caught.’’
Hamilton-based company MyApiary produces a variety of trackers specifically for beekeepers. One product is a traceability device that has a RFID chip inside a fibreglass reinforced nail. The nail can be painted over once installed.
Managing director Darren Bainbridge says larger operations tend to be more willing to invest in security technology for their hives.
There is a view that hive thefts will continue for as long as the country’s ma¯ nuka honey gold rush lasts.
Valentine, Lindsay and Sinkinson say greater public awareness about the issue and stiffer penalties for hive thieves could help curb the problem.
The man caught with Sinkinson’s hives had reportedly pre-sold them online for $750 each. He was offered a discharge without conviction but later had the charges dropped altogether.
Like many beekeepers, Sinkinson wants hive theft to be treated the same as cattle rustling. ‘‘For years, an insect has been looked at in a different perspective and wasn’t taken seriously. But it’s an animal and it produces money and it’s worth money. It should be treated exactly the same as stealing a cow or a sheep.’’
Thwarting the hive thieves
Unscrupulous individuals or groups looking to cash in on the honey industry isn’t a problem unique to New Zealand.
Overseas, the mismatch between honey production and demand has led to exploitation by food fraudsters. According to the United States’ Pharmacopeia’s Food Fraud Database, honey is a prime target for adulteration, with sellers using ingredients like rice and corn syrup to dilute honey.
Dr Justin Kurland, a senior lecturer in security and crime science at Waikato University, says food fraud is a massive global problem and reinforces the need to protect New Zealand beekeepers from criminal behaviour.
Kurland has had early talks with Kos and the police about devising strategies to thwart would-be hive thieves. He arrived in New Zealand six months ago and sports an impressive resume, including work dealing with conservation crime.
In the US, he and other crime scientists came up with an intervention strategy to combat Redwood burl poachers. In Northern California, criminals took to hacking off burls with chainsaws, leaving the trees susceptible to disease.
A burl is a tree growth and is typically sliced into veneers.
By analysing where redwoods were being targeted and studying the geography and topography of the surrounding area, Kurland helped law enforcement agencies predict where poachers might strike.
Crime scientists advocate five mechanisms to prevent crime: increase the effort involved in offending, increase the risk, reduce the rewards, reduce provocations and remove excuses.
Kurland suspects some beekeepers’ heavy investment in security technology may be money misspent. ‘‘There is a gross misconception . . . globally, that technology is a panacea for crime prevention and it’s not.
‘‘The fact that offenders have now switched techniques and aren’t taking the whole hives suggests they know some could have GPS chips inside. This also suggests they have a knowledge of the industry.’’
Kurland says his analysis could give the industry a conservative estimate of the financial harm associated with beehive thefts and, crucially, help prevent it.
He is keen to examine whether the thefts are occurring in places where there are a denser number of hives.
‘‘I don’t believe these thefts are a function of a large-scale organised approach to taking down the New Zealand honey industry.
‘‘I’m going to err on the side of empiricism, and the evidence that has been generated historically about crime, to bet the overwhelming majority of these instances are potentially individuals who also live in the area.’’
‘‘It’s [the bee] an animal and it produces money and it’s worth money. It should be treated exactly the same as stealing a cow or a sheep.’’ Beekeeper Gary Sinkinson