A Saskatchewan beekeeper says he is back in possession of 148 bee hives that were stolen from him.
“They’ve been through, I guess, an unnecessary stress, but we’ll be able to get them back going the direction we want them to go,” Derek Moyen said in a phone interview on Tuesday. Moyen operates Moyen Honey Farms, located in a rural area southeast of Zenon park.
Moyen said he may consider purchasing a security system that’s tailored to beekeeping operations in the future. Right now, he just wants to focus on his bees.
He was told that the RCMP is still investigating the theft of the pilfered hives, valued at $60,000. They were originally stolen sometime between 4 p.m. on May 10 and 11 a.m. May 13, but Moyen got them back over the long weekend.
As of Tuesday morning, the RCMP had not yet commented on any charges being laid in connection with the theft or the return of the hives.
In an earlier interview with the Leader-Post , Moyen said the way the hives were taken led him to suspect the thieves were fellow beekeepers.
Moyen Honey Farms was established in 1964 by Urbain Moyen. The family-operated beekeeping business expanded their small scale of 50 hives into 2,500 hives by 1986. Today, Derek and his dad Gerry manage and operate 3,500 hives.
Zenon Park is approximately 258 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.
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