After 15 years on the same site, a beekeeping training center is being forced to relocate due to bee assaults.
At the honey bee apiary in Liverpool, vandals have hurled bricks and upturned beehives on consecutive weekends.
The harm to “important” pollinators in “mindless attacks,” according to John Mooney of the Liverpool and Merseyside Beekeepers Association, is “extremely distressing.”
“We can’t keep going in this direction,” he continued.
The initial attack on the facility in south Liverpool occurred in early June, but following repairs, another attack occurred last weekend.
“It’s not simply the physical impact of having bricks hurled at the hives,” Mr Mooney explained.
“The real damage to bees is more serious; bees were spread about everywhere.” The colony will perish without a Queen.”
Mr Mooney went on to say that the news was “depressing,” because the insects were already in danger “due to increased pressure from diminished habitat and greater usage of pesticides and herbicides.”
Any attack on a hive, he warned, is “very hazardous” because it leads the bees to emit a pheromone that stimulates them to attack and sting, causing anaphylactic shock in some humans.
Mr Mooney wants to educate individuals responsible, asking people to “put on a bee costume and learn about the critical function of bees,” according to Mr Mooney.
Bees are “very vital to the food chain,” he added, since “up to two-thirds of food produced occurs as a result of bee pollination, and their numbers are declining.”
Volunteers are currently assessing the damage at the facility, which contains 15 beehives carrying up to 60,000 bees apiece.
The organization is on the lookout for a new home in Merseyside.
