Would love to name and shame

A friend of mine recovered a lovely colony from a lamp post, eventually boxed it , but as stragglers he secured it to the post, leaving the customary gap, as he needed to get back to work for a short while. The householder who had reported it was informed and he said he would keep an eye on it.

Another 'beekeeper' driving a green Land Rover, saw it and removed it for himself. When my friend returned the householder described the person.. who was well known to some of us. On phoning him, my friend was told it was a danger to the public and he admitted taking it. Shame on him! But par for that particular course.

Intention to permenantly deprive the owner of the hive if not the bees? Theft!
E

Heather said:

. who was well known to some of us. On phoning him, my friend was told it was a danger to the public and he admitted taking it.

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I'm intrigued....can you give us any hints?
Did your friend get his bees and hive back?

enrico said:

Intention to permenantly deprive the owner of the hive if not the bees? Theft!
E

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They'd been abandoned...

Heavens what a cheek.
Yes name him and we'll drum him out !!!!!!!!

If there is no intention whatsoever, to pass the swarm to the original collector then a name would warn all the locals of his greedy intent. Miserable git (if not playing fair to the beekeeping community) likely has plenty of colonies and could possibly have been the super beek who lost the swarm in the first place?

Could even say hope he gets a diseased colony and is quarantined, but that would unfortunately affect other local beekeepers.

Let's hope he gets a disease! .... and it drops off

He says he is going to be a big bee farmer from Brighton to London.

Actually the swarm was in a big cardboard box, strapped to the lamp post so not in the hive... but the home owner was happy for it to be there, safely waiting for retrieval, and was liaising with the initial bee keeper.
Just bloody rude!

enrico said:

Intention to permenantly deprive the owner of the hive if not the bees? Theft!

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Dishmop said:

They'd been abandoned...

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No, not abandoned, the box had been fastened to the lamp post.

If it happened to me I would name and shame, locally. On the internet I'd say a bit more than that they come from East Sussex and drive a green landrover!

Heather said:

A friend of mine recovered a lovely colony from a lamp post, eventually boxed it , but as stragglers he secured it to the post, leaving the customary gap, as he needed to get back to work for a short while. The householder who had reported it was informed and he said he would keep an eye on it.

Another 'beekeeper' driving a green Land Rover, saw it and removed it for himself. When my friend returned the householder described the person.. who was well known to some of us. On phoning him, my friend was told it was a danger to the public and he admitted taking it. Shame on him! But par for that particular course.

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can we play hang man....

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I'll go with A!

That could take quite a while.. It isn't his birthday on Sept 29th, but bet he celebrates anyway.. ego trip.

Heather said:

He says he is going to be a big bee farmer from Brighton to London.

Actually the swarm was in a big cardboard box, strapped to the lamp post so not in the hive... but the home owner was happy for it to be there, safely waiting for retrieval, and was liaising with the initial bee keeper.
Just bloody rude!

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Where was the lampost?

Yes, was on the pavement outside householders wall....public area... but he stole a cardboard box even if bees were up for takers, the situation was obviously under control of a beekeeper, and ethics come into it, surely.

Well yes I agree, completely out of order as it was obvious as to what the situtation was, and the sneakbeek should have gone to the house to enquire.

Drop a line to the BFA. If he's not a member yet then it would be good to know about somebody a bit dodgy, although if he drives a Landie he can't be all bad.

(My Landie is blue by the way)

Name and shame, too many people around like this!


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I don't understand why you didn't involve the police. Taking a swarm clearly controlled in a box is at the very least "stealing by finding" or "simple theft". I know bees are considered wild, but when they're under your control, I believe they're considered yours.

I would recommend you do as advised and report it to BFA and if he is a local BKA member, you report it to them.

We run swarm lists so the public can report swarms and have them safely removed. He has interfered with that process, so he should at least get a bollocking/warning from the local division he is a member of.

And given the beek had left the box to collect foragers for collection later, I would argue he has STOLEN them –-unless the swarmed they were your bees without any approach from the owner –-and at the very least should be made to offer recompense.

I'd go for it and if you get nowhere, name him on here.