Sunday was a little less sweet for a Vancouver United Church congregation who arrived for services to find sticky-fingered bandits had walked off with their bee-loved bees, hives and all..St. Andrew’s United Church, located in the north shore neighbourhood of Central Lonsdale, had hosted a pair of urban hives on its 110-year old grounds since 2021. They had reportedly become an endearing fixture and source of income for the local congregation, which sells the honey at fundraisers.. St. Andrew’s UnitedSt. Andrew’s United Church in North Vancouver. .Normally, Rev. Judith Hardcastle would check the bees each morning, but arrived last Wednesday to them gone. In interviews with local media, she was stung by the theft, insisting the perky pollinators were well-loved by parishioners and the community alike..“I felt totally deflated, to think that someone would steal our bees,” she told CTV News. She added she would forgive those responsible if the bees are returned..The hives were technically the property of Alvéole, a local company that works with residents and community groups to install urban hives..Cops made a bee-line to the site, but said they had failed to find any sticky-fingered suspects or the remnants of any discarded honeycombs. No one showed up in hospital looking for treatment from bee stings, either..That leads them to suspect the culprits had advanced beekeeping knowledge and knew what they were doing, although the motives were unclear..Hive theft is reportedly a growing problem in agricultural areas such as California, where more than 1,200 hives were reported stolen last year. In England, it’s estimated that bee-rustling costs farmers more than £39 million..That’s prompted beekeepers to set up sting operations, by attaching GPS units to the hives..But there could also be ulterior motives at play, in the form of disgruntled environmental activists. .In June, the David Suzuki Foundation encouraged local urban beekeepers across the Lower mainland to dismantle their hives after a Concordia University study claimed they crowd out more than 150 species of wild bees..The only bee species kept in beehives is the European honeybee — St. Andrew’s were Italian — which is "a non-native species that's essentially livestock managed by people," said Toronto bee researcher Charlotte De Keyzer. ."So it's a bit like saying that you're going to save the birds of Canada by keeping chickens in your backyard."
