Bee Rustlers?!

[nastygunz]

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2022/02/tens-of-thousands-of-bees-stolen-from-grocery-stores-central-pa-headquarters.html

[Hawks Feather]

The article mentioned the reduction of bee numbers and I have a friend here that has hives and he mentioned it a couple of years ago.  He was collecting a swarm next door this summer and I asked if his number were going up and he said that it is still a problem and was not headed in the right direction. What they do for plants helps keeps us living.

[remrogers]

About twenty years ago there was a fellow who rented bees to orchard owners in the Hood River Valley here in Oregon. Had an entire semi load of hives stolen at night. They set out the hives one night and went to check on them a couple days later. All of the hives were gone. Don't recall if they ever found them.

[nastygunz]

And now there are murder wasps in the United States which are deadly to honeybees!

https://www.livescience.com/murder-hornet

[FinsnFur]

Speaking of Bees, how do you tell the Queen bee from the rest? IFFFffff you happen to see or find her.
Besides shes bigger. I see them on TV once in a while and they have weird markings. I always assumed the bee keepers marked them like that. 

[nastygunz]

You have to stick your head right down into the hive and look real real close and see if you can spot a big plump one with a little tiny crown on its head. 

[FinsnFur]

Wachoo talkin bout Willis?

[nastygunz]

Diddddd Iiiiiiii dooooo thattttttt