Nearly 60,000 bees have been stolen from a supermarket chain’s headquarters in Pennsylvania.
The bees were stolen from the Giant Company’s corporate field on the Harrisburg Pike in Carlisle some time between 28 and 30 January.
“Bees are an essential part of our food supply chain and having these beehives were one way we were helping to address the declining bee population here in our hometown community,” said Jessica Groves, community impact manager with Giant, in a press release.
“We are extremely disappointed that this happened and are continuing to cooperate with Middlesex Township police department,” she went on to add.
In 2020, the Giant Company introduced a seven-acre solar field at its corporate headquarters to support bees, along with birds and small wildlife.
Bee populations have been dwindling in recent months, with beekeepers reporting an estimated loss of 45.5% of their colonies from April 2020 to April 2021, according to the nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership led by the University of Maryland.
In Pennsylvania, beekeepers lost approximately 41% of their colonies between that time period, marking a slightly lower loss than the national average. Beekeepers in Iowa took the hardest hit from April 2020 to April 2021, losing 58.4% of their colonies.
Associated Press contributed to this report