"The honey was my bread and butter... they stole the food from my mouth," Mathilda Crous, 67, told Beeld newspaper.

She and her husband Wiekie had owned and managed a small apiary since 1992, and kept their hives in the ruins of an old house, situated about 1km down the road from their home in open veld.

The bees earned them an income of around R3000 every second month.

According to Mathilda, the replacement value of the hives was around R1000 a unit.

"We used to love looking after our bees. If you drove down the farm road and walked among the hives, you could often smell the honey," said Wiekie Crous.

The couple said they were determined not to let the theft get them down, and they were hoping they could find a way to start again with new hives, which would be securely kept under lock and key.