Police seize 34 beehive boxes

The seized beehive boxes are in storage until police can trace all the owners.

A police campaign targeting bee thieves is paying off with Kawakawa police seizing 34 hives believed to have been stolen around the Mid North.

Sergeant Kevin Milne said he was at a property at Waiomio, just south of Kawakawa, on an unrelated matter last week when he noticed two trailers loaded with beehives around the back of the house. Some of the boxes had been freshly painted, further arousing his suspicions.

He took note of a registration number stamped on some of the hives, looked it up when he got back to the station, and found those hives belonged to a Mid North beekeeper who had reported a number of thefts over the past year.

Armed with that information police obtained a warrant and returned to the address, where they seized 34 beehive boxes. The boxes contained frames but no bees.

Mr Milne said a 54-year-old man living at the address would be interviewed further this week before police decided on charges. Work was continuing to find the owners of the other hives.

Police launched a Northland-wide campaign in May to stem a spate of beehive thefts fuelled by soaring demand for manuka honey.

It works by calling on members of the public to call *555 from their cellphones if they see any suspicious movement of beehives, for example if they are being transported late at night. Most legitimate movement of hives occurs around dawn or dusk.

Mr Milne said last week a member of the public reported a ute at Kaiwaka laden with hives late at night. Police were able to look up the vehicle's registration and found it belonged to a registered beekeeper.

"But that shows it's working. We've got information coming in from around Northland," he said.

The campaign was devised by Kawakawa police, particularly Constable Courtney Sandilands, and sees them working with the Beekeepers Association and other agencies. Police have access to a database maintained by food safety firm AsureQuality which lists the details, vehicles and beehive numbers of all registered beekeepers in Northland.