Where are the bees? California farmers combat rise in hive theft, threatening almond crop By: Jake Goodrick, The Sacramento Bee
A
nationwide shortage of honeybees has coincided with a rise in beehive thefts as growers throughout the Central Valley prepare for almond bloom, a pivotal time for the health of the nut, which is one of California’s most lucrative crops. Beehive thefts in California have reached record highs in recent years, building on what’s nearly a decade-long trend, leaving beekeepers collectively short thousands of hives and millions of dollars. Now the uptick in stolen bees has met a rise in dying bees, leaving what the state beekeepers association has described as a shortage of bees necessary to fuel
one of California’s largest agricultural industries. “We are anticipating there will not be sufficient hives for the 2025 almond pollination season,” said Ryan Burris, California State Beekeepers Association president, in a news release. “On top of this issue, hive theft reports are coming in daily.” The cause of the unusual volume of bee deaths is unclear and may stem from a combination of factors ranging from pests, pesticides, viruses, housing conditions, climate and more. “It’s not exactly clear if one thing is more responsible than the others or if finally all of these things together are having a massive effect on honeybees,” said Rowdy Jay Freeman, a hive theft investigator and beekeeper.
Surging beehive thefts Freeman, a Butte County deputy, has become a de facto expert in the nexus between beekeeping and apiarian crime. No statewide tracking of beehive theft existed, he said, when he took his first investigation into one such incident in 2013. He began keeping those stats on his own, creating a log that shows hive thefts reaching all-time highs each of the past two years. “Hive theft investigations are so difficult and convoluted,” Freeman said. “They aren’t like any other kind of theft investigation.” Beehive thefts spiked nearly a decade
ago, with more than 2,700 hives stolen between 2016 and 2017, according to Freeman’s count. But after two men were arrested — one who was convicted and one who died — in relation to a string of thefts during those years, the number of reports fell and stabilized between 300 to 640 reported thefts per year, until rising again a few years ago. Nearly 1,100 hives were reported stolen in 2022, followed by almost 2,300 in 2023 and a record of 3,492 in See 'Hive Theft' Page 10