Beekeepers in the Hawkes Bay have launched a search and destroy mission hunting down the hives of cowboy beekeepers in the wake of an American Foulbrood outbreak. 

Hawkes Bay bee industry coordinator, Tom Taylor, says cowboy beekeepers in the Hawkes Bay are threatening the industry by not registering or properly checking their hives.

"People just don’t want to pay to have their hives registered, which actually pays for this pest management strategy – it causes a big problem because when you do get a disease outbreak you don’t know where the hives are.

"And it just multiplies; I mean we’ve already found unregistered hives in the area. And some of those sites have had ASB hives on them as well."  

The National Beekeepers Association has been taking out advertisements in the Hawkes Bay seeking information on unregistered hives and so far has burnt more than 30.

"You should be checking your hives all the time. You should be checking them when you move them, you should be checking them when you take something off them, when you put something on them.

"But some people just don’t seem to do it. It’s a beekeeper spread disease. I mean bees don’t generally spread it by themselves – human beings spread it a lot faster than bees do."

He says if dead infected hives are not dealt to properly it is only a matter of time before other bees rob their hives of honey and bring the disease back to healthy hives.

Fellow Hawkes Bay beekeeper, Mary-Anne Thomason, says a tip-off led to her discovering  unregistered hives on one property yesterday – several of which were completely dead.  

"Seven of them had disease and three of them were OK. Sitting out there with disease, they are just a time bomb waiting for everyone else’s bees to come and steal honey from them and transfer the disease."