Pests and poor summers, not agricultural pesticides, are to blame for falling bee numbers. It is a sad fact of life that when something is in short supply its price rockets - and then the thieves move in. The big rise in the number of beehives being stolen over the past few months is a sharp economic reminder of the colony losses beekeepers have experienced over the past few years. It is an issue growers are being asked to confront on more than one level: even if you do not rely on honeybee pollinators for your crops, the habitats around your farm or orchard and your use of crop-protection chemicals are implicated as potential causes of the problem.
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