The once peaceful world of French beekeeping has been invaded by suspicion and fear due to a rise in hive thefts.
With the bee population dwindling and demand for locally produced honey rising, hives have been disappearing at an unprecedented rate, with beekeepers blaming each other in an increasingly toxic atmosphere.
In the Occitanie region of southern France, for example, 157 hives were stolen in seven days last month. That has been repeated in other parts of provincial France, with barely a week going by without local papers reporting a theft. Pauline Girie, 33, of Thodure in southwest France, discovered last week that half her 50 hives had been taken. She said: “I was stunned. I had to sit down. We take care of our bees, our hives, it’s a lot of work and someone comes along and ruins everything in one night.”
With the annual death rate of bees running at 35 per cent because of pesticides, global warming and Asian hornets, and France’s 60,000 professional and amateur beekeepers able to meet only half the national demand for honey, the business has become prey to cut-throat competition.
