Beekeeper Medina displays a beehive frame outfitted with a GPS locater that will be installed in one of the beehives he rents out, in Woodland, California. As almond flowers start to bloom, beekeepers rent their hives out to farmers to pollinate California’s most valuable crop, but with the blossoms come beehive thefts. — AP
WOODLAND, California: For a few frenzied weeks, beekeepers from around the United States truck billions of honeybees to California to rent them to almond growers who need the insects to pollinate the state’s most valuable crop.
But as almond trees start to bloom, blanketing entire valleys in white and pink flowers, so begin beehive thefts that have become so prevalent that beekeepers are now turning to GPS tracking devices, surveillance cameras and other anti-theft technology to protect their precious colonies.
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Beekeeper Medina displays a beehive frame outfitted with a GPS locater that will be installed in one of the beehives he rents out, in Woodland, California. As almond flowers start to bloom, beekeepers rent their hives out to farmers to pollinate California’s most valuable crop, but with the blossoms come beehive thefts. — AP
Beekeeper Hello Medina displays a beehive frame outfitted with a GPS locater. Medina says last year he lost 282 hives estimated to be worth US$100,000, and is now installing GPS-enabled sensors to help find the stolen hives. — AP
An employee of beehive supplier Tauzer Apiaries uses smoke to calm the bees before inspecting one of the company’s hives in an almond orchard in Woodland, California. — AP
Beehives of Tauzer Apiaries and rented for crop pollination, sit in an orchard in Woodland, California. About a thousand beehive boxes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars have been reported stolen across California the past few weeks. The thefts have become so frequent that beekeepers are putting tracking devices, surveillance cameras and other anti-theft technology to protect their hives. — AP
Trevor Tauzer, whose family-owned business, Tauzer Apiaries, rents beehives for crop pollination, inspects a beehive rented to an almond grower in Woodland, California. — AP
A bee approaches an almond blossom in an orchard near Woodland, California. — AP
