Taylorsville Couple Raising Awareness After Vandal Destroys Beehive Boxes
Sep 20, 2019, 10:19 PM | Updated: Jul 16, 2023, 3:39 pm
A Utah couple is raising awareness about bees and their role in food production after someone damaged their beehive boxes, killing an unknown number of bees.
TAYLORSVILLE, Utah – A Utah couple is raising awareness about bees and their role in food production after someone damaged their beehive boxes, killing an unknown number of bees.
“It was stupid. Stupid and very frustrating and very uncaring,” said Shawna Jorgensen. “Why would people try to hurt these creatures? Why?”
The Jorgensens said when they arrived at their home Thursday, some of the boxes where they raise bees had been knocked over and damaged.
Shawna’s husband Dale Jorgensen fixed the damage, but they weren’t sure how many bees were lost.
“Fortunately, it was only the top two boxes, so they were still surviving in the bottom two where the main hive was and the queen,” he said.
The Jorgensens said people walk on the canal trail behind their home all the time.
Every now and then, Dale said someone does something to their boxes.
“It is frustrating,” he said.
Both Jorgensens said they knew whoever damaged the boxes most likely won’t be caught. However, they’re also looking at the bigger picture far beyond their backyard.
When Shawna started getting into beekeeping decades ago, she and her husband found a new passion.
“We’ve been doing this for the past 25 years,” Shawna Jorgensen.
“We’ve probably got 700-800 pounds of honey stored up,” said her husband, Dale Jorgensen.
The Jorgensens said bees are important for food production because they pollinate crops.
Lately, though, a decline in the number of bees nationally is threatening that natural production.
“Without the bees, without the pollination that they create, we wouldn’t survive,” said Shawna Jorgensen. “We would be dead.”
It’s an issue called colony collapse disorder, and it’s one the Jorgensen’s are worried about.
“We’re going to have trouble keeping the food production going if they decline too much,” said Dale Jorgensen.
If nothing else, they just want to raise a little buzz as to how important bees are.
“(It’s) the balance of life,” Shawna said. “Mankind tends to mess with that a lot and we need to respect delicate balance.”
