Beekeeper’s anguish after beehive worth $1k stolen

A Brisbane beekeeper has been left devastated after one of her native beehives was stolen last week.

Sarah Hamilton had one of her beehives stolen last week. Picture: Richard Walker

A Brisbane beekeeper has been left devastated after one of her native beehives, worth $1000, was stolen last week.

Sarah Hamilton, 41, from Zillmere, said a box full of bees was taken from the front of her brother-in-law’s Albany Creek property on January 27.

As part of her “Bee Yourself” service, Ms Hamilton places beehives at host houses around Brisbane to ensure her native stingless bees have equal opportunity to food.

On the morning of the 27th, the bees were set to be moved to Ms Hamilton’s home while her in-laws moved. Prior to the hive being stolen, the hive was placed into a small cardboard box to contain the bees.

“From the road it would have looked like a delivery sitting there,” she said.

“I suspect someone’s just gone past and just grabbed it thinking they might score a delivery. They would have opened it and they would be flying around.”

She had the hive for more than three years.

Sarah Hamilton runs 'Bee Yourself'. Picture: Richard Walker

“In a good season I would split a hive every year, but the last four years have been so hard on the bees. That hive has been there a good three years and it hasn’t been split,” she said.

“It was just getting itself ready to be split. Essentially it’s monetary value is two hives.”

She hoped the thieves were planning to sell the hive, rather than just dump it.

“If they throw it into a wheelie bin there’s no chance of them surviving that,” she said.

“If they put it under a tree somewhere it should be fine. When you transfer bees out of their established box into a new box it’s really risky for the bees, so the chances of them surviving are pretty slim.”

This is just another blow to what she has described as a difficult few years with less-than-ideal weather proving a challenge for beekeepers.

“It’s been so terrible. They [the hives] are certainly not getting to that stage where they’re ready to propagate or to split,” she said.

“We suspect something else is going on, something beyond just the weather.

“Spring and summer is when I go out there and split all my hives, essentially doubling my supply. The last four years I haven’t been able to do that at all.”

Australian Native Bee Association Committee Member Tim Heard said many native beekeepers have become demoralised due to challenges with expanding and maintaining their hives.

Sarah Hamilton says the past few years have been a challenge for native stingless beekeepers. Picture: Richard Walker

“We know that our hives are not performing as they normally do. So many keepers of Australian native stingless species have been keeping them for a long time and generally we regard them as a very productive, consistent, and reliable species to keep,” he said.

“Most beekeepers do use their colonies to extract resources, in particular honey or they propagate them either to increase their own numbers or to produce some extra hives to sell.

“They [the bees] don’t put on as much weight and they’re not as ready to either propagate or to extract resources from.

“Some have not chosen to bail out completely but have had that decision thrust upon them because they’ve lost pretty much all their hives.”

He said wet weather has led to a dilution of nectar, allowed bacterial diseases to thrive and reduced the availability of pollen while humid conditions have led to pests invading hives.

“Those factors we think could be making a contribution. The relative importance of each of those? We don’t really know,” he said.

“What we’ve seen in the last three years is the rates of propagation, productivity and the extraction of resources has dived.”