We all rob our bees, anyone have their bees robbed (by someone else)?

[kedgel]

This week in our beek assn. mtg. a fellow said he had 4 of his hives stolen!  In the ensuing discussion I learned that it has become a frequent occurrence in FL.  One beek with 80 hives had someone come in and take the middle 5 frames of all his hives.  It effectively wiped him out.  It was recommended we engrave or burn our names and state license # into all our hives and every frame.  Geez, what a pain!  I'm glad my 3 hives are in my yard guarded by 2 very vigilant golden retreivers.  It made me reluctant to ever set up a hive in a nearby orange orchard or someplace similar for fear of it disappearing.   :-x  Someone suggested we try to set up a sting opperation!   :-D

[Bee Happy]

 :lol: sting operation!
I've heard of it, I don't have enough hives to get any attention of that kind, and even if I did, same for me, the dogs aren't real fond of strangers.

[G3farms]

I had several hives set up on a university on their ag campus. Most had two to three shallows of capped  honey on them. I was told to come and get them out of the way since they were going to build a large pond close by. Borrowed their tractor and front end loader to load them with and found they were light enough to load by hand. Some varmit had robbed the shallows, extracted the honey and brought the wet shallows back. What a guy!! I had a pretty good idea who dun it, but could not prove it. Lost my profits but not my investment. I hope they gagged on every spoonful  :devilbanana:

G3

[kedgel]

I had several hives set up on a university on their ag campus. Most had two to three shallows of capped  honey on them. I was told to come and get them out of the way since they were going to build a large pond close by. Borrowed their tractor and front end loader to load them with and found they were light enough to load by hand. Some varmit had robbed the shallows, extracted the honey and brought the wet shallows back. What a guy!! I had a pretty good idea who dun it, but could not prove it. Lost my profits but not my investment. I hope they gagged on every spoonful  :devilbanana:

G3

:shock:  Musta been somebody from out of town!  :shock:  K-town is my home town (I grew up in Karns, my youngest son was born in the UT Medical Center).  Surely nobody local would do such a thing!   :-x Probably a GATOR fan!!!  ;)  GO VOLS!!!   :evil:

Kelly

[G3farms]

Actually it was up in Harrogte, TN at LMU, the wife and I both went there. That was back when I hauled hives in the trunk and back seat of of an old plymouth I had.

My kids and myself all went to Farragut. How in the world did a Karns Beaver get all the way down to FLA??

Anyway glad to see you are still a VOL fan.

G3

[fish_stix]

Simple solution; take a large red permanent marker and write AFB in large letters across the front of the hive like the inspectors do.  :-D

[Paynesgrey]

From what I have read, in Texas it looks like you have to engrave a TX issued ID #("brand") on all bee equipment, everything from your gloves to boxes to frames & hive tools(!) if you have more than a certain number of hives, or sell any. Disease control/disease tracking is the justification. Illegal to possess without a number and receipt of bought/given from another beekeeper. We are new to this, and don't have enough hives for that yet. I haven't asked any big beekeepers, so I don't know if this is highly enforced or commonly practiced.

[G3farms]

I would be afraid when I came back next time there would be nothing but a pile of ashes!

G3

[kedgel]

Actually it was up in Harrogte, TN at LMU, the wife and I both went there. That was back when I hauled hives in the trunk and back seat of of an old plymouth I had.

My kids and myself all went to Farragut. How in the world did a Karns Beaver get all the way down to FLA??

Anyway glad to see you are still a VOL fan.

G3

Nice to hear from a local yokel.  To answer your question, we have TWO honey flows in FL!! I love it here in spite of all the Gator fans.   8-)  When they stop having winter there and get a beach, I'll move back!

Kelly

[lenape13]

All the laws and regulations are, in reality, worthless.  They are like locked doors, as they only keep the honest people out.  The people bent on stealing something are heedless of the laws.  They will steal it whether you have names and numbers engraved all over it.

[rast]

 It's always been a sporadic problem down here, usually in late April when they can be hauled North with other hives. It takes another beekeeper to do what you are describing.
It is a Fl. law that your hives be permanently marked with your Fl.# or they can be considered abandoned by the state. Useless as a theft deterrent. More useful to the state if someone complains about hives placed somewhere besides your property.
A Gator Fan :-D   

[Paynesgrey]

That's about what I figured.