Each year, Don Kolpack can't wait for spring.
Pollen-rich flowers begin to burst open and the hundreds of thousands of African honeybees that the Howard County beekeeper cares for busily collect nectar to help make their honey supply for the season.
But when the retired carpenter went to check on the hives he kept in a wooded area in Savage last month, they were gone.
FOR THE RECORD
An article in yesterday's Maryland section misreported the type of bees kept by a Howard County man who had some of his hives stolen. They are Italian bees.
The Sun regrets the errors.
"I thought to myself, `Who in the world would do this?'" said Kolpack, 74, who has kept bees as a hobby for 55 years. He keeps his colonies in several Howard County locations, five of which he kept in Savage.
"Someone had taken everything. Feeders. Boxes. That was quite a shock."
Though infrequent in Maryland, hive theft is on the rise in parts of the country where bees and honey are big business. Beekeeping experts attribute the increase in part to higher honey prices resulting from a mysterious condition that has devastated bee colonies in the past couple of years.
"It makes, unfortunately, unsavory people a little bit more inclined to steal them," said Patricia Johnson, secretary of the California State Beekeepers' Association. "It's becoming an issue just keeping your bees alive, so if you've got some healthy colonies, you don't want someone else taking them away from you."
The problem has become serious enough in some parts of the country that companies are offering security devices for tracking hive movement, including some that use GPS technology and motion sensors. The 372-member California association has a Bee Theft Reward Program, offering $10,000 for information on anyone who has stolen or destroyed members' property.
The few reported thefts that have occurred in Maryland - one in 2007 and two in 2006 - have flummoxed state agriculture officials.
"It's very seldom because most people are afraid of bees, and most bees are kept in isolated places or farms," said Jerry Fischer, state apiary inspector. "They're not in locations where people can just pick them up."
Underlying the rise in hive theft is colony collapse disorder, which has been killing off honeybees nationwide, experts say. Researchers have not identified a cause of the problem, which appeared a couple of years ago when beekeepers in 24 states reported that hundreds of thousands of their bees were perishing. Some large commercial operations, which typically keep 20,000 to 30,000 colonies, reported that more than half of their populations were wiped out.
