RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — A Long Island farmer says over 1,000 honeybees were recently stolen from his property and their hive was vandalized.
Larry Kaiser owns 1760 Homestead Farm in Northville, where he sells grape pie, local produce and fresh honey produced by the bees he keeps on the 4-acres of property.
Kaiser notes that the bees are a “survivor stock” that are healthy and safe – which is crucial considering the bee population has been decreasing dramatically over the years.
The beekeeper and farmer says he takes exceptional care for his bees, but recently made a shocking discovery when he found one of the hives had been vandalized.
“The most disturbing thing on it was on the frame, was written the name Koravel, that is a character from [World of] Warcraft – a video game. The character… it is the ‘Lord of Death and Destruction,’” said Kaiser.
He says whoever vandalized the wooden bee case jumped the back fence surrounding the property and also stole over 1,000 bees.
“We don’t know if this is sabotage. We don’t know if this is a message, someone being cruel,” he said.
What is even more strange is that the person, or persons, responsible also stole a healthy Queen bee and replaced her with a different Queen bee and added in a few new worker bees – which the beekeeper says can be very dangerous as the new bees may be carrying germs or diseases that can be harmful to the hive.
“This is not done for vandalism. This was someone who has knowledge of bees, how to handle them,” Kaiser said.
Kaiser is hopeful that someone may know what happened to the bees and will come forward.
The bees are used on the farm to pollinate the flowers and vegetables, as well as produce honey to be sold at the farm stand.