WOODLAND, Calif. — — 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.
“It’s hard to articulate how it feels to care for your hives all year only to have them stolen from you,” Claire Tauzer wrote on Facebook to spread the word about the reward. A day later, an anonymous tipster led authorities to recover most of the boxes and a forklift stolen from Tauzer's family business some 55 miles away, at a rural property in Yolo County. One suspect was arrested.
A tightening supply of bees and soaring pollination fees — jumping from less than $50 to rent a hive two decades ago to as much as $230 per hive this year — are likely motivating beekeepers to go rogue. But bee populations are notoriously unstable due to a host of problems, including disease, loss of habitat and insecticides.
Denise Qualls, a pollination broker who connects beekeepers with growers, suspects the thefts are happening because beekeepers can't provide the strong colonies they promised,"so they can get the money from the grower and then they leave the hives.”To help her clients track their investments, Qualls merged her business with tech startup Bee Hero to equip hive boxes with a GPS-enabled sensor.