Half a Million Bees Perish in Dutch Fire Incident.
A Dutch beekeeper has voiced shock after his 10 beehives were set ablaze in a park in the city of Almere, causing the loss of an approximated 500,000 bees.
The beekeeper stated that every colony contained a population of forty to sixty thousand bees, and the idea that someone could destroy them was devastating.
"It is deeply painful that my ten colonies have died," he told regional media.
Police in Almere, which sits to the northeast of Amsterdam, have requested witnesses after the deliberate fire on Tuesday evening in the city's scenic Beatrixpark. They posted pictures of the fire on social media.
The Netherlands authorities says that more than half of the nation's 360 species of bee are at risk of extinction, as the population of bees declines around the world.
The beekeeper explained that police had told him an flammable substance had been used to burn the colonies, which were sitting on wooden platforms in a wooded part of the park.
Almost none of the bees survived and he noted that he had little faith the arsonist would be apprehended.
Fellow beekeeper a local beekeeper told Dutch radio that she had three bee colonies and planned to give him one of them.
For the beekeeper, who cared for the bees for about nine years, the fire means building a fresh hive in the park from scratch.
But he insists he will not give up.
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