BEEHIVES that were stolen from a Llangollen business have been found just three miles away.

The theft of the hives containing hundreds of thousands of bees took place between July 28 and July 31, and occurred at Blackwood Lane, Mynydd y Garth, near Llangollen. ‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌​

North Wales Police's Rural Crime Team issued an appeal for information - with the hives worth several thousand pounds.

Nathan Edgerton Evans, co-director of West Coast Apiaries, the company from which the hives were stolen, spoke to Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday morning.

“We’ve got some fantastic news, and that is [that] all of the missing bee hives are now back in our possession and are looking in a reasonably healthy state,” he said.

Mr Evans said that he believed the culprits knew what they were doing when they stole the bees, adding that the hives were “quite cleverly concealed” when they found them.

“This was absolutely a carefully considered operation for them. They had a specially erected area where they had the hives and it was obviously pre-planned,” he said.

Mr Evans said that the discovery was a result of information provided by the public to a PCSO, and that the hives were found just three miles away from where they were stolen.

He also praised the public for having been on the lookout for the bees, adding that “everybody had a part to play in this”.

Mr Evans added that the police investigation into the theft remains ongoing.