Owners of B&B Honey, in Tremonton, Utah, called it quits this month after years of tragedy. B&B Honey is not the only beekeeping company that has struggled after experiencing theft of their beehives.
Tate and Bryce Bunderson both said their luck with the beekeeping business has run out.
“I think B&B isn’t for me,” Bryce Bunderson said. “It was a great learning experience and taught me a lot, but it’s hard to continue something, when each year there are set backs that are hard to recover from.”
Tate and Bryce Bunderson’s hives got stolen in 2014, but they started to think seriously about shutting down after their bees died in the Box Elder County fire. The brothers had originally started the company to fund their LDS missions.
“If it means anything, it’s not like we were inexperienced bee keepers that did a bad job at taking care of our hives,” Tate Bunderson said. “At one point my dad left his job to do beekeeping full time, along with my brother. I was on my mission in Tennessee when we got them stolen.”
“I was planning on having it be my career, but plans change,” Tate Bunderson said.
In 2014 the brothers’ hives were stolen. On Aug. 5, 2016 the entirety of the Bundersons’ hives were killed in a fire in Box Elder county.
The fire and the theft the brothers’ experienced is the main reason they are shutting down B&B Honey.
Hive thefts in Cache Valley have affected more people than just the Bundersons. Logan resident Jerry Stoddard had 60 of his beehives stolen in 2014.
“The thief took the actual boxes,” said Stoddard, the current president of the Utah Beekeepers Association. “Normally they just take the heart of the hives and leave the boxes. It looks less suspicious.”
Stoddard said hives can be stolen from multiple states, and then driven over state lines to California. Due to the almond pollination season in Calif., the demand for honey bees is high.
The increase in beehives being stolen from northern Utah beekeepers brings attention to the nation-wide theft issues the beekeeping industry is facing.
“This year we don’t have enough bees,” said Roger Stephenson, appointed secretary of the UBA. “And now the keepers’ established hives are disappearing. This is very detrimental to the guys who are trying to pay their bills this winter.”
Michael Stephenson, UBA’s president-elect for next year, said he is not sure of how to address the issue.
“I am still mapping out a way to solve this problem,” Michael Stephenson said. “It’s never an easy task to try to take down beehive thefts like this.”
Former UBA president Gaylon Yack said beehive theft has not been an issue in Utah.
“When I was president I never saw anything like this,” Yack said. “But I guess if there’s something to steal, there’s a thief to steal it.”
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