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In the winter time bees hibernate and at the beginning of last week Wallace paid a visit to his hive to check things were as they should be.

"I was looking at it and I just thought something wasn't sitting right,” he said.
When Wallace went to take a closer look he realized that the inner box was gone along with the full colony of bees. He was left “flabbergasted” at the fact someone had stolen the hive.

“I just couldn't believe it," he continued. "But it must have been someone who knew what they were doing. I don't see how any Tom, Dick or Harry off the street would have been able to do that.

“I have been keeping bees for 30 years and I've never come across this before. There were some dead bees lying at the bottom of the baseboard and from what I could tell, they hadn't been lying there too long so it must have happened fairly recently."
Wallace confirmed that while he makes the inner frames himself, the bees are worth around £100.

“It's not the money or the value that I have the real issue with," he added. “It's simply the face that someone would do this in the first place."

Antrim Guardian

Drones for Dumping
DRONES could be used as Clare’s newest weapon in the war against litter, one local councilor has suggested. The remote controlled surveillance devices, which have gained notoriety from their use by the U.S. government, have been put forward as a possible solution to fly-tipping or illegal dumping in the county, with a claim that drones are already being used on the continent for this purpose.

At a meeting of the Environmental and Water Services Strategic Policy Committee of Clare County Council, Councilor Johnny Flynn hit out at what he described as the “disgusting” behavior of people who litter the county’s roads.

He believes government grants could be used by the local authority to send a drone into the air to identify the culprits of illegal dumping. Last year, grant funding was used by Clare County Council for the deployment of mobile CCTV to deal with littering, with Flynn urging similar funding be obtained for drones.

“I am delighted that the funding was used for mobile CCTV and I understand they have been very successful. I would suggest that the council consider applying again this year and consider using drones, robotic flying cameras, that could be used to look out for fly-tipping,” he said.

“We have to come down very hard on these people. There are a million bags of rubbish unaccounted for in this county.”
Flynn said the devices are already being used on the continent for this purpose.

“This could be a very effective weapon to deal with these anti-social scoundrels. It would be an inexpensive and effective way to monitor this behavior,” he said.

He added that a tough stance needs to be taken on anybody found illegally dumping.

“Anybody involved in fly-tipping and serious and persistent anti-social behavior should have the benefits of living in an open and modern society restricted. For example, any person whose vehicle is found to be involved in fly-tipping should loose their driving license for 20 years,” he said.

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Nster.com