Half a Million Bees Killed in Netherlands Deliberate Blaze.
A beekeeper from the Netherlands has voiced dismay after his ten colonies were set ablaze in a park in the central city of Almere, causing the death of an approximated half a million bees.
Harold Stringer stated that each hive housed a colony of forty to sixty thousand bees, and the thought that anyone could destroy them was horrific.
"It is deeply painful that my 10 hives have perished," he told regional media.
Police in Almere, which sits to the northeast of Amsterdam, have appealed for witnesses after the arson attack on Tuesday night in the city's scenic Beatrixpark. They posted pictures of the fire on social media.
The Dutch government says that more than half of the nation's 360 species of bee are at threat of dying out, as the number of bees declines globally.
The beekeeper said that police had informed him an accelerant had been used to burn the hives, which were placed on wooden platforms in a forested area of the park.
Almost none of the insects survived and he noted that he had little faith the perpetrator would be apprehended.
Fellow beekeeper a local beekeeper stated on Dutch radio that she had three hives and planned to give him one of them.
For the beekeeper, who cared for the colonies for about almost a decade, the incident means building a new colony in the park from scratch.
But he insists he will not give up.
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