HAMPSHIRE bee-keepers are being stung by professional “bee rustlers” who are stealing hives to sell on the black market.

Thieves have targeted at least four farms across the county in the past month as a national shortage of honeybees drives up their value.

The bee community is abuzz with who is behind the crime wave, with some pointing the finger at fellow keepers.

In the most recent heist, six hives – worth an estimated £1,800 on the black market – were stolen from a commercial farm at Micheldever, north of Winchester.

Victim John Cosburn, who is also president of the Hampshire Beekeepers Association, said: “It has got to be someone who knows about bees, I mean would you want to move 40,000 bees?

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“They would have needed the right equipment and know how to move them without killing them.

“I have no idea who did it, but I assume they were either stolen to order or it was a desperate bee farmer whose hives had died.”

Thefts have also been reported in the past month in Selborne, north of Petersfield, Basingstoke and the New Forest.

The value of hives has more than doubled to £300 in the past couple of years as Britain’s bee population has diminished due to disease and wet summers.

The thefts have been reported to Hampshire police, but keepers say there is little they can do stop the new crimewave.

Suggestions include branding hives, hiding them from view or even attaching satellite tracking devices and trapdoors.

Bishop’s Waltham beekeeper Alan Johnson said it was appalling to that bee enthusiasts would steal from each other.

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“Who else in their right mind would disturb 40,000 bees? There has got to be an easier way to make money,” he said.

Hampshire Beekeepers’ Association vicechairman David Nield said the bees would have to be taken at least three miles away, otherwise their natural instinct is to fly home.

“The next month is when hives are most vulnerable because honey is in full flow,” he said.

The association’s New Forest chairman Nicholas Bentley-Buckle said the widespread news coverage of Britain’s bee crisis had led to an enormous surge in interest.

“Our membership has almost doubled in the past two years and it is usually people who have heard about the plight of bees and want to help,” he said.