More quality journalism and another theft

[Jon]

Each queen bee can command a colony of more than 50,000 drones, laying thousands of eggs a day during summer.

BBC Scotland (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-27189662)

[busybeephilip]

Unfortunately bees are worth a lot of wonga, and the equipment too.

I had a friend develop a hive monitor which sleeps to save the battery and sends a text message if the hive is moved at all, the whole thing is concealed in the woodwork, has GPS posioning every 15mins and can be radio linked to bush cameras etc to catch the thief in action. I have seen similar devices for sale in the USA where this is a major problem for the commercial guys

[busybeephilip]

BBC scotland report states the bees are worth £500 - this is like waving a flag over an apiary site inviting thieves to help themselves

[Jon]

We hope to set up the Arnia equipment at Minnowburn this week and that includes and anti theft warning to a mobile if the hives are opened or moved.
You can log in to check the status of the hives any time day or night.

[Trog]

John Coyle will doubtless be mortified at being so badly misquoted http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-27189662.
I agree it's really unhelpful to state how valuable a colony is at this time of year.