Vandals who were feared to have killed up to 200,000 bees in a Perthshire wrecking spree could be taken to court by the hives’ owners.
A total of 17 hives at Heather Hills Farm near Guildtown were damaged when they were targeted in May.
The teens threw rocks at the hives and scrawled graffiti around the site, causing thousands of pounds’ worth of damage.
The farm, which was founded in 1945, has already battled through poor summers and harsh winters which had seen its bee population cut by half.
Managing director Mark Noonan said eight of the damaged hives died following the attack, though efforts by staff ensured the other nine survived.
He said he remains angry with the vandals and has not ruled out civil action after police were unable to prosecute the children.
He said: “I’m not left with a lot of options other than taking the children to court, which is not a nice solution.
“I haven’t ruled it out. I don’t see why Heather Hills should suffer the loss from vandalism when the culprits are there and known.
“They put someone’s business at risk, someone who’s not only employing local people but rearing bees which everyone now knows is a really important part of the environment and the whole ecology.”
He added that careful work by the beekeepers had saved some of the hives, but the company was suffering a financial loss as a result of the vandalism.
He said: “The beekeepers put them back together at the time but some died because the queens would have been out on the ground and would never have got back into the hive.
“I’ve lost eight hives and that would cost about £1,000 to replace just for the bees, and you lose about a year’s production and they were averaging about 50lb (of honey) per hive.
“I’m annoyed that I lost what I lost. We had a bad enough time with the weather as it was, so we didn’t need to lose any at all. It’s not like it was natural causes.”