Half a Million Bees Perish in Netherlands Fire Incident.

Destroyed beehives — A beekeeper's 10 beehives were destroyed in a green space in the Dutch city of Almere.

A beekeeper from the Netherlands has voiced shock after his ten colonies were burned down in a public garden in the central city of Almere, resulting in the loss of an estimated half a million bees.

Harold Stringer stated that every colony housed a population of forty to sixty thousand bees, and the idea that anyone could destroy them was horrific.

"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 blaze on online platforms.

The Netherlands authorities reports that over 50% of the nation's 360 species of bee are at threat of extinction, as the number of bees decreases globally.

The beekeeper said that authorities had told him an flammable substance had been employed to burn the hives, which were sitting on pallets in a wooded part of the garden.

Barely any of the bees made it through and he said that he had little faith the arsonist would be caught.

Another apiarist a local beekeeper stated on Dutch radio that she had three hives and wanted to give him one of them.

For the beekeeper, who looked after the colonies for about nine years, the incident means building a new colony in the park from scratch.

But he affirms he will not give up.