Brad Poile was met with an unpleasant post-Christmas surprise when checking his beehives in the Benandarah State Forest, just north of Batemans Bay on the NSW South Coast, last month.
Expecting to find several boxes of hives side-by-side, he instead found they had been ransacked, and seven hives were missing.
The Nelligen beekeeper said the theft was a "kick in the teeth" after trying to rebuild his hives following the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.
"It's been a rough three years to build up from ... 12 hives post-fires for that to happen," Mr Poile said.
As a third-generation beekeeper, his family had never been confronted with a theft quite like this before where someone has "taken everything that they could get their hands on".
The NSW South Coast police district has deployed its rural crime prevention team to investigate the theft, which is believed to have occurred sometime in mid-December.
With backyard beekeeping a growing trend among members of the public, Mr Poile said thefts like this could become more common.
For this reason, he said he would explore tighter security options for his hives.
Microchips, CCTV to track hives
The president of the Southern Tablelands branch of the NSW Apiarists' Association, Laurie Kershaw, said he had also had hives stolen and even vandalised.
"People vandalise the bees by running over them with four-wheel drives, or just tipping them over," he said.
Mr Kershaw advised beekeepers to invest in tighter security measures such as GPS trackers that can be added to hives and CCTV on private properties to monitor for thefts.
According to Mr Kershaw, the use of security technology is growing among beekeepers.
"You put a microchip inside the beehive and the signal can be picked up by your mobile phone and if that beehive moves, say, 6 or 7 inches from its location, you can see that someone's even tampering with your bees," he said.
Hive theft could increase varroa mite risk
Laurie Kershaw warned that stealing hives posed a serious biosecurity hazard due to threat of the parasitic varroa mite.
All movements of beehives must currently be reported to the NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) to control the spread.
"Stolen bees can cross state borders without NSW DPI knowing and they could cart varroa with them," Mr Kershaw said.
Anyone with information about beehive thefts can contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
