SACRAMENTO –The Assembly Committee on Public Safety passed a bill authored by Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, to create new civil and criminal penalties for stealing, transporting, destroying, or vandalizing beehives.

Assembly Bill (AB) 2849 now awaits further review in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

“Honeybees are a vital part of agriculture,” said Evans.  “But our Honeybee population is disappearing at an alarming rate.  Beekeepers are already coping with a significant reduction in honeybee population from disease.  They need the full support of law to protect their property.”

Honeybee crop pollination conducted in California adds over six billion dollars to the value of our agricultural products.  The theft of beehives has cost California beekeepers at least an estimated $330,000 in the last 18 months alone.

Sponsored by the California State Beekeepers Association, AB 2849 raises the criminal penalties of stealing beehives from a misdemeanor to grand theft.  It also provides for civil penalties valued at five times the damage caused to a plaintiff for unlawfully taking, possessing, harboring, transporting, destroying, or vandalizing beehives.  Additionally, AB 2849 provides beekeepers a right to fair compensation for time and money spent to recover or replace beehives.

“Beekeepers are under tremendous pressure to keep up with demand for pollination,” said Gene Brandi, Legislative Coordinator of the California State Beekeepers Association.  “As the price of pollination rises, so does the value of each hive.  Thieves are stealing bee hives and renting them to farmers as their own.  This bill is the first step in combating thefts plaguing our industry.”

California has the largest beekeeping industry of any state in the country.  Nearly 500,000 colonies of bees are operated by 400 commercial and semi-commercial beekeepers.  In late winter, approximately three-fourths of all U.S. commercial Honeybee colonies are pollinating over 600,000 acres of California almonds.