Keystone College is abuzz with gratitude for local support after thousands of bees were stolen from its apiary earlier this month.
Kelley Stewart, director of Keystone Environmental Education Institute, said when staff discovered about 15,000 bees missing from a hive on July 17, they couldn’t come to grips with the fact that someone would have stolen the bees.
“A few weeks ago our beekeeper had installed a swarm we had caught right outside our apiary,” Stewart said. “When she came up for her usual two-week inspection, she noticed that the nuclear box she had captured the swarm in was missing. She thought that perhaps myself or someone else had removed it from the apiary.”
Shanon Hornung, the school’s beekeeper and a graduate, then went into the hive, hoping to find the bees alive and well, but instead was met by an empty area.
Keystone College Beekeeper Shanon Hornung looks out from a frame of bees. (SUBMITTED)
Bees shown at the Keystone College Apiary. (SUBMITTED)
Keystone College beekeeper Shanon Hornung holding bees. (SUBMITTED)
Keystone College Beekeeper Shanon Hornung teaches environmental science to youngsters at the Keystone College Apiary. (SUBMITTED)
Stewart took to Facebook, posting, “Looking for help! Someone entered our apiary and stole a colony of bees, frames and a nuc box. If anyone has any information, please reach out,” on the Factoryville community page.
After Stewart posted on social media, news about the theft quickly spread and residents were disheartened by the theft of the insects, jeopardizing the school’s environmental education programming, which is open to the public.
After further investigation, Stewart and Hornung realized not only had the bees been stolen, but they had most likely been stolen by a beekeeper.
Only an experienced beekeeper would know that many of the bees would be out foraging for nectar resources and pollen until dark, she said.
“If you didn’t wait until after sundown, you’d be missing a huge component before bees return to the hive for the night,” she said.
The thieves were also methodical, she said.
Stewart said she is working with college security to identify the culprit or culprits who stole the bees.
The college has identified a two-week period previous to July 17 during which the bees were stolen.
Unfortunately, she said, an internet outage during that period seems to have precluded surveillance cameras from picking up the thieves on video.
“We don’t know if we’ll ever find out what happened,” she said, adding the school has increased its video surveillance of the bees.
Stewart said she hopes the thief wasn’t someone who had used a nearby public trail, making the area available to the community.
‘Wonderful outpouring’
Sonny Kierzkowski, a member of the Lackawanna Backyard Beekeepers, reached out to the college earlier this year, offering to donate bees.
He catches swarms of unwanted bees from homes and businesses and relocates some of them to his hive and others to fellow beekeepers.
Because of scheduling conflicts, the donation hadn’t been finalized at the time the bees were taken.
When Kierzkowski heard about the theft, he immediately donated six frames of bees, or about 5,000 to 10,000 bees.
“He happened to reach out to me and he had a swarm that he had caught and was interested in donating and he did do that,” Stewart said. “We’ll likely get a couple more swarms from him, too, by the end of the summer.”
In addition to Kierzkowski, someone from Pleasant Mount Beekeepers Association in Wayne County reached out to donate bees, and Skytop Lodge expressed interest in supporting the Keystone apiary.
“It’s really been a wonderful outpouring and its really nice to know the community cares about our bees and about the apiary,” Stewart said. “At the end of the day, it’s actually been a positive thing.”