Bee mine always

A touching report from Cornwall tells of stolen bees flying back to the original site of their hive. Perhaps it will one day make a Disney film like The Incredible Journey (1963), which traced the wilderness trek of Luath and Bodger the dogs, and Tao the cat. Casting bees will be a big job, as they numbered 80,000 to a hive and five hives were stolen. It will be like the dwarves in The Hobbit to the nth power: Bofur, Bombur, Bombus, Bumble … Nifty voiceover work will be needed to distinguish their doubtless marked personalities. In reality a positive identification of stolen bees may be a problem. Not that over the centuries the law neglected bees: it expected owners to keep escaping bees in sight to lay their claim. But once bees are safely hived, no keeper should fear rustlers. A country should perhaps be judged on the security of its bees.