ALVIN, Texas – Police in Texas are searching for whoever is responsible for dumping beehives and setting them on fire over the weekend, killing an estimated half a million bees.
The Brazoria County Beekeepers Association (BCBA) reported the destruction to police after finding their bee yard in ruins Saturday morning. Hives were strewn across the ground, with several reduced to ashes.
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Last night someone did major damage to a BCBA Bee Yard in Alvin last night. Its bad enough to think in todays world this...
Posted by Brazoria County Beekeepers Association on Saturday, April 27, 2019
"Its bad enough to think in todays world this would happen but dumping them over and then setting fire to them is beyond comprehension," the group wrote in a Facebook post.
BCBA President Steve Brackmann told the Houston Chronicle that there are 30,000 bees to a colony on average. He estimates nearly 20 hives were damaged and half a million bees were killed.
"When they go and they set them on fire, then they've destroyed everything," Brackmann told KTRK. "So that goes past vandalism. That is just basically criminal."
The Brazoria County Sheriff's Office is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the person or persons involved. The BCBA is offering an additional $1,000 reward for such information.
"It's not an easy case, any case of this nature where there's no witnesses," Lt. Varon Snelgrove told reporters. "It's a relatively rural area, so it's just a matter of getting out and beating the bushes."
The culprit or culprits are expected to face charges of arson and felony criminal mischief.