Fruit, vegetable and nut crops that rely on bees for pollination have been hurt, affecting food manufacturers. In February, Haagen-Dazs ice cream announced a $250,000 "Haagen-Dazs loves Honey Bees" campaign to help fund research of pollination and colony collapse disorder at two universities. Nearly 40 percent of the brand's ice cream flavors include ingredients that depend on bees for pollination, according to the company.
Though colony collapse disorder hasn't hit Maryland, the bee population here has been compromised in recent years by weather, Fischer said.
While commercial growers are victims of most of the thefts in California, Johnson said, even hobbyists feel the pinch when their colonies are stolen.
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.
"That's a little added income, and in this day and age, every penny counts," she said.
Most Maryland beekeepers are hobbyists, with more than 60 percent keeping as few as two colonies, Fischer said. Despite the crisis in the bee population and the thefts, the number of registered keepers in Maryland has crept up steadily in the past four to five years.
In 1996, there were 1,000. By the end of last year, more than 1,500 beekeepers were registered here with more than 10,000 colonies.
"They just love outdoors, love nature," Fischer said of bee hobbyists. "They want to put honey in their own tea from their own hives."
Kolpack began beekeeping in 1953 when he found three hives that his father-in-law had planned to throw away. Donning work gloves and a World War I-era overcoat, Kolpack wrapped a window screen around his head and loaded the hives into the bed of his 1952 Dodge pickup.
He placed them under an apple tree, replacing the rotting boxes over the next few days. He's been keeping colonies ever since.
"At one time, I had 76 hives of bees, but it just got to be too much for me," he said. Kolpack keeps about 30 colonies these days.
For Kolpack, the thefts amounted to much more than just a material loss. He is fascinated by watching worker bees covered with bright yellow skunk cabbage pollen zip back to the hives to make food and shelter.
"They were exceptionally strong colonies of bees," he said of the stolen hives.
He keeps his colonies sheltered from the wind and paints the boxes to protect the wood. He feeds his bees a sugar-water mixture to help them produce more honey when nectar is scant.
"If you don't provide a quality home, you're not going to get any honey," he said.
