The police say there's mounting evidence that organised crime is behind a sharp spike in the number of beehive thefts.
In the past six months they've had 400 hive and honey thefts reported, most of them in Northland, Auckland, Whanganui and Manawatu.
The police are characterising the connection between the rising number of thefts and the rising price of manuka honey as a "gold rush".
Senior Sergeant Alasdair Macmillan, the national co-ordinator for community policing, told Morning Report the thefts are getting to the stage where they're "threatening the economy and the livelihoods of apiarists around the country."
