She lost 200,000 bees to bandits — and is now one of many paying thousands on surveillance

Walking through the buzz and brush of her bee yard, Maggie Lamothe-Boudreau points to a nearly empty wooden pallet that used to house hives in her field in Saint-Adrien-d'Irlande, Que.

She's about 200,000 bees short.

Last week, four hives disappeared overnight in what she suspects was an amateur hive heist.

Leaving behind a pair of glasses and several boxes with drill holes and tape on their side, she says these incidents are all too common for producers in Quebec.

"Stealing a hive is like stealing a cow from a cattle farm.… My bees are very precious to me," said Lamothe-Boudreau, owner of Rayons de Miel, about 100 kilometres south of Quebec City.

Even the loss of a few hives will impact her 700-hive business.

"It's kind of emotional because you never imagine you get something stolen from you," said Lamothe-Boudreau.

"I love my bees. That's why I'm a beekeeper. My job is to take care of them, and in exchange, they give me honey."

She says police opened a file into the incident.

A beekeeper since 2011, this is the first time she's had hives stolen. But as vice-president of Quebec's beekeeping association, she says theft and vandalism have been affecting producers across the province for years. It's forced some to invest thousands of dollars in cameras and other surveillance methods, she says.

"It's kind of a chronic problem because I'm not the only one that has gotten a few hives like this stolen," said Lamothe-Boudreau.

She said hive thefts have been on her mind since "the big steal" that happened near Victoriaville, Que., in 2016.

That's when Marco Beausoleil was charged for making off with five million stolen honey bees from Saint-Valère, Que.

He pleaded guilty to the theft of 180 hives that made headlines across the province, and was ordered to serve nine months probation and pay a hefty fine.

The theft on Lamothe-Boudreau's property also garnered attention online after she took to Facebook.

She says she's received support and heard chilling stories from fellow beekeepers.

"I've had some beekeepers tell me [people] put gasoline in the hive and they just lit it on fire," said Lamothe-Boudreau.

She says thefts can range from a few hives like hers to dozens in other cases.

'It's our income'

Jean-Denis Doyon, co-owner of Miel d'Emilie in Saint-Sylvestre, Que., says the loss of a few hives could mean the difference of thousands of dollars, a significant hit even for a large business.

"[It's] a living thing. It's our income," said Doyon.

"If it's damaged or [someone] sets it on fire or steals it, it's not just income from honey that we lose. It's also income from the pollination for the following year."

Vandalism pushed the managers and owners of Miel d'Emilie, which has 10,000 hives, to install a dozen cameras around their properties last year.

It was a move they made following two cases of vandalism in 2023 where they found hives moved and burned using an accelerant.

"We called in the police to help us with an investigation but it was never very conclusive," said farm manager Cynthia Couture. "So at a certain point, we looked at ourselves and said, 'What can we do to at least try to catch the culprits?"

Couture says the cellular cameras that are commonly used for hunting set them back a few thousand dollars.

The technology captures movement in the fields — allowing them to keep a close eye on the hives with their phone and computer.

"Each day we could receive dozens and dozens of photos," said Couture.

"This is a chronic problem. I have even experienced finding a man in our field, near our hives."

Without taking into account honey or pollen, a hive alone costs $500, says Couture. When you add up the costs of the material, it has a far-reaching impact on the bottom line.

'It's already hard taking care of the bees'

While finding her stolen hives intact might be unlikely, Lamothe-Boudreau says she is keeping an eye on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji to see if she can spot a matching seller.

Holding a queen bee between her fingers, she says the people who took her hives may have the intention to start their own small business.

In the meantime, she installed a camera in the trees in one of her apiaries, but notes the cost to cover all 30 bee yards is steep.

At $250 per camera, adding surveillance to every yard would cost her thousands.

"I lost financially to this robbery and now I have to pay to get some cameras," said Lamothe-Boudreau.

"I cannot lose beehives like this. It's already hard taking care of the bees. We have losses every year. There's illnesses. We have to fight the Varroa mites [parasites], we have to fight the climate.… Now you just add another layer: Robbery. That's really awful."