Quebec beekeeper stung by theft of five million bees from field worth $200,000

Quebec beekeeper Jean-Marc Labonte said on Thursday that he's in a sticky situation after thieves buzzed off with about five million of his bees.

He said he noticed on Wednesday that 180 hives were stolen from a field near Victoriaville, Que., about 150 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

The bees and hives are worth about $200,000, he said, adding he thinks they were stolen sometime between April 24-26.

"To have hives stolen like that, it's not funny at all," said the president of the family company, Miel Labonte.

As of Thursday no arrests have been made, Quebec provincial police said.

Labonte said Quebec, like many areas in North America, is suffering from a shortage of bees that for years have been decimated by disease and pesticides.

He said he thinks shortages are the reason why his little critters were stolen.

"The police are on it and we hope they'll catch who did this," he said.

Labonte said the bees were hibernating for the winter and in about five weeks time were set to pollinate the blueberry bushes around the Lac Saint-Jean region before moving on to cranberry fields in July.

Leo Buteau, president of Quebec's beekeeper federation, said large-scale thefts of bees and hives are uncommon.

He said it could be that keepers who lost a lot of bees over the winter could be tempted to replenish their hives with other peoples' bees.