Why would a person maliciously kill bees on an urban farm? The Hayes Valley Farm in San Francisco had its bee farm attacked last week. Someone deliberately sprayed pesticide into the vent holes of their honey bee colonies. The result? Over 60 percent of the bees in the colony were killed. More than the money lost, the emotional affect is difficult. The HVF is working hard to create a better urban community only to have a local resident turn on them. It seems there’s been some misunderstanding about bees.

Many farms are focused as much on education, as growing and selling produce. If anything good can come out of this, perhaps it can help raise awareness about the importance of bees in our environment. Bees are an essential part of the ecosystem, pollinating as much as one sixth of the flowering plants in the world and over 100 agricultural crops in the U.S.

Scientists have long noticed that bee populations have been dwindling. Numerous theories abound as to why that’s the case. Be it overuse of fertilizers and pesticides, air pollution from carbon dioxide or cell phone radiation, our bees have been affected. It seems that urban beekeeping has made a significant impact on increasing bee numbers. Let’s hope that urban punks won’t destroy these efforts.

Image: wolfpix

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