500,000 Bees Perish in Dutch Fire Incident.
A beekeeper from the Netherlands has voiced dismay after his ten colonies were set ablaze in a public garden in the central city of Almere, resulting in the loss of an approximated half a million bees.
Harold Stringer stated that each hive housed a population of 40-60,000 bees, and the idea that someone could kill them was devastating.
"It really hurts that my 10 hives have died," he informed regional media.
Police in Almere, which sits to the east of Amsterdam, have requested witnesses after the deliberate fire on Tuesday night in the city's scenic Beatrixpark. They shared images of the fire on online platforms.
The Netherlands authorities reports that over 50% of the country's 360 species of bee are at threat of dying out, as the population of bees decreases around the world.
The beekeeper explained that police had told him an accelerant had been employed to burn the colonies, which were sitting on wooden platforms in a wooded part of the garden.
Barely any of the insects made it through and he said that he had little faith the perpetrator would be apprehended.
Another apiarist Heleen Nieman stated on national radio that she had three hives and planned to give him a colony.
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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