An elderly beekeeper has been left ”dumbstruck” after vandals went on a trail of destruction through his apiary, wrecking beehives and destroying thousands of his prized bees.
The 75-year-old retired sales rep, who lives in Dundee but keeps bees on farmland to the north of the city, says the thugs used iron bars ”like golf clubs” to smash six hives, killing thousands of bees, on two occasions this week.
The man, who asked not to be identified, told The Courier his hives hold up to 40,000 bees each.
”There will have been thousands killed by these people,” said the clearly upset pensioner. ”They did some damage on Tuesday and I think they were chased off by the bees then I hope so anyway.
”But they came back again and smashed up the six hives. They left iron bars behind so they must have used them like golf clubs to smash the hives.
”I was dumbstruck when I saw them. The amount of damage they’ve done is incredible. They have rampaged twice through the apiary and thousands of the bees are dead.
”These were special bees too. I’ve bred them specially and kept them separate from other hives.”
The man added: “It’s my hobby. I’ve been keeping bees for around 25 years now and nothing like this has happened before. Kids have knocked over hives before that’s one thing but this was terrible.
”I went up this afternoon and moved them all to a different area.”
Chief Inspector Cathy MacDonald said the police are ”appalled” by the attack and pledged to track down the vandals.
”We will investigate this thoroughly and are determined to trace the people responsible for this act. Quite apart from the damage caused, we are also disgusted at the disregard for nature.
”We are very conscious of the public interest in wildlife and particularly bees at the moment and I’m sure the public will be equally appalled. We will do our utmost to trace those responsible.”
The beekeeper added: ”The farmer has had a bit of trouble with vandals recently. They broke down a stone wall then went through woven fencing to get into the apiary, then smashed down a wooden gate to get out.
”Hopefully the bees stung them.”
Anyone who knows anything about the vandalism is asked to contact Tayside Police on 0300 111 2222, or speak to any police officer.