500,000 Bees Killed in Netherlands Arson Attack.
A beekeeper from the Netherlands has expressed dismay after his ten colonies were set ablaze in a park in the central city of Almere, causing the loss of an approximated 500,000 bees.
Harold Stringer mentioned that each hive housed a colony of forty to sixty thousand bees, and the idea that someone could kill them was devastating.
"It really hurts that my 10 hives have perished," he told local broadcaster.
Police in Almere, which sits to the northeast of Amsterdam, have appealed for witnesses after the deliberate fire on Tuesday evening in the city's picturesque Beatrixpark. They shared pictures of the fire on online platforms.
The Dutch government reports that more than half of the nation's 360 species of bee are at risk of extinction, as the number of bees decreases globally.
The beekeeper said that police had informed him an flammable substance had been used to ignite the hives, which were placed on wooden platforms in a wooded part of the garden.
Almost none of the bees made it through and he said that he had doubt the perpetrator would be caught.
Fellow beekeeper a local beekeeper told national radio that she had three bee colonies and planned to give him one of them.
For Mr Stringer, who cared for the bees for about almost a decade, the incident means starting a new colony in the park from the beginning.
But he insists he will not give up.
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