Jack Graham loves bees and beekeeping.

The 13-year-old from Rossland, B.C., spent the last two years researching the practice. Just two weeks ago, for his birthday, he was given his first hive by his 99-year-old great-grandfather — who is himself a beekeeper.

“I fell in love with these little fuzzy creatures that fly around,” the teen said.

But after the inexplicable cruelty of a stranger, he’s having to start all over again.

Graham and his family say they came back from a holiday last weekend to discover the hive smashed and the colony poisoned.

“It was really, really sad. I was crying. I loved the beehive so much. It was just awful,” Graham told Global News.

As far as the family can tell, someone broke into the property with theft on their mind but found some heavy-duty insecticide and instead decided to trash the hive.

“We went out to the deck because I like to check on the bees, and the whole landing area was black with balled-up dead bees; I didn’t know what happened,” said Graham.

“I went down there and was trying to figure out what happened. And when my mom went down there, she could smell that it was poison.”

It may not be a total disaster. Graham said that despite losing about 1,000 bees, some survived, and he’s washed out the hive — which he’s paired with a new base built by a friend.

He said he’s also been overwhelmed by the support from the community after multiple offers to replace the bees and the hive.

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