Hives stolen looking for help

[MTINAZ]

I am not sure how some of what is being asked is relevant. How do beekeepers bees end up in CA with a broker or another beekeeper watching them, or in ND for for the honey flow, or TX, or FL for the winter. I get the feeling some of you feel I am lying about this so I will elaborate a little. My name is Clinton Caffrey, I live in snowflake Arizona. In 2001 I purchases 100 packages out of CA. I ended up loosing all 100 do to what we think was loco weed poisoning(all pesticide and disease testing was negative). In order to hopefully build faster and on one last chance I decided to buy nucs from russell apiaries and Robert was nice enough to offer to put them on some of his fathers old honey yards that were not being used. I drove out in april and installed the nucs in my equipment near learned MS. There were some spits made through out the summer and some hives moved. I then received the email last week that the theft had occurred. I have not posted any other details as I think that is between me and the sheriffs office, and is not relavent for people many states away.

[Joel]

Well Sippy - you have to admit you kind of keep yourself in the middle of this controversy but that's OK - I'll take your posts as good spirited and maybe I am misguided.
Your state inspector doesn't know 100 hives were stolen a week or more ago??????? Really? I guess it's good you brought him up to speed and I suspect if he is the MSInspector supporting your claims on the other Russell post he hoped right on.
I interpreted the fact you posted it on this post as well as the reference to coming to light soon and name dropping as indications you and the inspector had discussed the case. How else would that be interpreted? What are you confident will come to light very soon and why? These types of investigations are notorious for never getting solved. Maybe it was the name droping thing that threw me off.
Interesting someone with the handle MSINSPECTOR is on another thread supporting your claims while your're here using an inspector, not necessarily him if he is an inspector, to bolster your position, maybe he really isn't a MS state inspector and maybe I am completely misinterpreting you both on these posts and if that is the case I offer my most humble apology. I did head to head battle (along with others) with inspections in this state and after getting in touch with the states attorney generals office and my state senator they state changed the entire program and most of the inspectors. Most of us who do this for a living have pretty strong opinions about the inspections programs and what inspectors legally can do and will push that envelope every time. That's a different thread, it's all here on beesource if you go back a few years in your search.

MtINAZ - I had posted some suggestions for you here but deleted them as I realized after posting they might be too law enforcement sensitive and assuming the bad guys might be browsing here with all the talk did not want to negatively impact your case- That's what Kieck was referring to in his post - I will send it to you directly if you are interested and PM me an e-mail address. I really hope you get your hives back!

[Barry]

I think it would be good if everyone took a breath, paused a bit before posting, and not overly read into much of this. Be careful what words you use and be careful how you chose to interpret someone else's words.

[alblancher]

Either way you seem to have incredibly bad luck. It sucks losing 200 hives basically at no fault of yours.

Hope you have a better 2013

[Mtn. Bee]

Sorry to hear about your loses hopefully everything works out the best for you!

[Acebird]

Be careful what words you use and be careful how you chose to interpret someone else's words.

Be careful of what you wish for Barry. Posting could dry up in a heart beat.

[Barry]

Like I said Ace, be careful what words you use.

[jmgi]

MTINAZ,

As for me, I never doubted that you were being totally honest about everything, sorry if I came across that way, and I do hope that this whole thing is solved expediently for you and the criminals are caught. Many of the readers here have many questions as do I that have not been answered, not that we can do anything about it, being as you say, many states away. I guess we all just naturally want to do some detective work on our own, and therefore the missing details have us curious, that's all. I'm sure that you have reasons for not going into some particulars of the case, and that is your business for sure. Again, I hope this whole thing is resolved soon, and you get your bees back. John

[Blossom]

Hope you have insurance.... but getting something stolen really stinks. I remember when my car got broken into at work and they jacked my subwoofers, amp, deck and anything else they could. I wasn't too mad about that. However, they also took my Nike work out pants and my owner's manual for my car, which upset me greatly. Why would you take someone else's pants.... and why the owner's manual for my car?

JRG13 - Why would someone steal your car manual? Sounds like they have the same kind of car and now they have your system in it too. People can be such jerks. I hate crooks! Be glad they have the same kind of car or they may have taken it too. P.S. They must be the same size as you too..

[Kieck]

I understand that the investigation will limit what you can and should post here, MTINAZ, yet I am interested to hear what you found and learned on the ground in Mississippi this week.

[MSBEEINSPECTOR]

The thread you have been reading involves a theft that has occurred in Mississippi in the past few weeks. In working with the appropriate law enforcement as an inspector for the state I have been asked to place a request on this website for assistance.

Bee colonies and equipment were stolen from sites in both Rankin & Hinds Cos., MS. The equipment is clearly marked and easily identified. They are painted with BSH. Any and all comments to me either by PM or my e-mail will be held in confidence by the law enforcement in charge. Any information, no matter how small you think it is, is important to the investigation. Sometimes a comment heard in passing by someone gives a lead to be utilized.

You can PM or use the following email
Charles H. Wilson
charles@mdac.ms.gov

BSH BOXES 2.jpgBSH BOXES 1.jpg

[MSBEEINSPECTOR]

Sorry - posted twice

[shannonswyatt]

JRG13 - Why would someone steal your car manual?

I lived in Hawaii for a few years. When I got there I was told to never lock my car as that wouldn't stop them. Once after a scuba dive with some friends we returned to our cars and my buddies car was broken into (he didn't heed my advice to him!) In any case the only thing missing was the ice from his cooler. Not the drinks, or the snacks, or the other food, or the cooler, just the ice. Very weird. Oh, and he didn't have to worry about locking his car anymore as they broke the lock on the hatchback.

[kilocharlie]

The timing would suggest a person making money in bee pollination, likely almonds. Word is that a lot of guys are down 25% to 50% of their bees, most guesses are due to some new pesticide. One broker stated that only one beekeeper (a buddy of mine) came in over his estimates for numbers of colonies, nobody else even came close.

My only question - and please shoot me down if this is not a help, or suggest that it be dealt with privately at some later date - is this, "Are the boxes and frames identified with a name, number, or other brand?" I can promise that I will keep my eyes opened for them if you post it or send me the info in a PM. I can pass this info along to a number of key people out here (all 58 county Ag. Commissioners in Calif.!). A similar thread last year motivated me to hurry up my branding iron project, and register my hives with my county Agricultural Commissioner (in lieu of bee inspectors here in CA).

I would say, "Good luck", but I feel it would be better to make luck happen in a case like this. I would post all identifying information I could re. the stolen equipment and bees all over the almond areas in CA with the word "REWARD" in large letters at the top. The last thing this guy wants is 2 million beekeepers and their neighbors around the country looking for your equipment!

Another trick is to have very small metal ID tags fitted into a drilled hole in the notch hidden by a finger box joint (drill deep, and plug the hole so it can be stapled as normal), glued and stapled away in the box, or similarly located in the top bar of a frame (catch THAT guy and will he ever be surprised at how he got busted!). Police can X-ray your metal ID without destroying the box.

Of course, deterrent is better, so brand the hell out of every surface you can (your "BSH" paint job was good, but brand them as well). Leave a note in every box stating, "I poisoned ONE of the honey supers. See if you can guess which one!", or better yet, "This honey made from GMO flowering crops by genetically modified bees." If the scumbag persists in stealing more hives, put an empty super with a live snake in the top box. I have been working on a Lo-Jack for beehives, but it would be difficult to fit them in a frame as of yet, so as to catch the "chop shop" guys like Oldtimer mentions in New Zealand (BTW, thanks for the article, Oldtimer!).

[RichardsonTX]

My only question - and please shoot me down if this is not a help, or suggest that it be dealt with privately at some later date - is this, "Are the boxes and frames identified with a name, number, or other brand?" I can promise that I will keep my eyes opened for them if you post it or send me the info in a PM. I can pass this info along to a number of key people out here (all 58 county Ag. Commissioners in Calif.!). A similar thread last year motivated me to hurry up my branding iron project, and register my hives with my county Agricultural Commissioner (in lieu of bee inspectors here in CA).

Charlie.........I am glad that you posted this.

I am a hobby beek transitioning to a sideliner who, after reading this thread, will be branding all my equipment (frames and boxes) as I grow. I now see the importance of this and hopefully all other beeks with out-apiaries will also do this. If everyone branded all of their frames and boxes something like this would probably not be done.

Individual states should cooperate with the indentification process (if they aren't already doing it) and brands should have digits that indicate what state that brand comes from. "TX" would be part of the brand indicating that its a Texas registered brand. If the frames in this thread had been branded that way and the border inspection folks in CA had the brand number and accounted (randomly inspected) for all hives temporarily brought into the state for pollination, then that person would be more likely to be caught.

That metal indentification tag that could be inserted into the wood is a cool idea and needs to really be explored. I don't think it would be practical on a per frame basis but it would allow for quick inspection of a box by a border inspector, investigator, etcetera. I would think it needs to be indentifiable by a scanner kind of like a credit card reader. Maybe something that even a smart phone with an app on it could utilize. GPS tags may not be economical but I think something like this could be.

[Oldtimer]

I can't brand frames because I sell bees and my brands would eventually show up all over the place. But if I wasn't selling bees I would, could be done resonable quickly during assembly.

A sign in the apiary saying all frames have been branded would be a deterant to a thief. If not all but one or two hives had a gps locator installed, and the sign said that, would also be a great deterant.

What I do have though at a yard that would be easy for a thief, is a camera. In fact, more than one because I put the word out I use cameras, so don't want someone to go looking for it & when he finds it thinks he is home free.

[shannonswyatt]

Folks have mentioned GPS locators in this thread, but does someone have a particular device in mind? I would think that to be effective you would need a device that was a transmitter with GPS built in. I assume it would use cellular, so I would also assume you would need some sort of plan for each of these devices from a cellular provider. And I also assume these would need batteries, so you are probably looking at something around the size of a cell phone. This seems like it would be too expensive a solution to deploy. Or is there something that would allow you to track your hives without a data plan and something the size of a phone in the hives?

[Oldtimer]

I don't understand the technical side of this, but my laptop has something in it that transmits at intervals, and I've signed up with a business who will track and find my laptop if it's stolen, cost $150 for a 3 year plan.

So if something like that could be put in a hive you'd just put it in an occasional random hive I guess.

[jim lyon]

....or perhaps just a sign claiming one or more of these hives contain gps chips, well..... do ya feel lucky?

[shannonswyatt]

Yes, but with a laptop you have wireless built into it, so I would assume that the location would be transmitted via wifi (based on ip address information). So you wouldn't need a data plan for it. And you already have the sunk cost of the laptop with a wireless device built in. Iphones and ipads have built in GPS and they are connected to a carrier already, so they are easy to track. I would assume that you could just attach a smartphone to a beehive and track it that way, but even if you could get something cheap (less than $100) and you could negotiate a deal with a carrier to charge a discounted rate it will still be expensive per unit. It would have to be around the size of a phone, so it would be tricky to hide in a hive. I'm not saying you couldn't do it, just don't know how you could do it cost effectively.