Beekeeper badly stung by heist

WHERE ARE THEY? 28 hives were stolen from a Matamata beekeeper.

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A Matamata beekeeper is on the hunt for more than a million of his winged workers after being stung by the theft of 28 of his hives.

Thieves cleaned out a quarter of John Tyler's business in a bizarre bee heist, leaving him struggling with the impact at one of the busiest times of the year as demand for pollination from fruit growers hits its peak.

"(I'm) stunned, I suppose," he said. "I'm pretty upset."

The theft of hives worth about $7500 and containing 50,000 bees each is nothing against the loss of income.

"Each beehive would have fetched about $150 for pollination," he said. "Then there was the honey crop. A drum of manuka could reach anything from $5000 to $10,000."

Mr Tyler is now grappling with how 1.125 million of his bees were rustled about November 7 or 8 from the Te Poi farm paddock where their hives, each weighing 25kg, were sitting.

"It would have taken at least two guys and a small truck to move them."

Last week his beehives were set to go to kiwifruit orchards in Te Puke for green pollination, before being moved on to the East Cape to collect manuka.

He used the Te Poi farm as a convenient drop-off point.

Mr Tyler said he would definitely recognise his stolen hives, which were uninsured. The lids, which he designed himself, feature a unique sugar feeding hole made with a galvanised washer.