How Easy Is It to Steal $20,000 Worth of Bees?

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In the weeks leading up to almond pollination, there's a lot of thefts. How easy is it to steal $20,000 worth of bees? It sounds really hard. So I went to the Central Valley in early February just as pollination season was kicking off. What did you find? Are you now an amateur beekeeper? No, far from it. But I can definitely say that I've been to an apiary now. And what kinds of bees are these? Yes, they're honey bees. They're obsessed with their queen. Anything that's so focused on authority can't be trusted.

Humanity can’t survive without bees, which is why bees are big business for thieves. Today, Explained’s Haleema Shah heads to the capital of sting operations — California’s Central Valley — to find out who’s beehind these thefts and why they're happening.

This episode was reported and produced by Haleema Shah, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

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