Alemany Farm bee hives destroyed by vandals San Francisco Alemany Farm hives tended by volunteers are relocated

Karen Peteros works with the bee hives at Hayes Valley community garden in San Francisco, Calif. Karen Peteros works with the bee hives at Hayes Valley community garden in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Alemany Farm bee hives destroyed by vandals 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

San Francisco's tight-knit beekeeping community is all abuzz over the latest mayhem targeting their colonies: the wanton destruction of two active hives at a community garden.

Two weeks ago, vandals, armed with large chunks of concrete and tree limbs, knocked over and smashed wooden beehive boxes at Alemany Farm, a volunteer-run community farm and hands-on educational program on Alemany Boulevard, tucked between the south slope of Bernal Heights and Interstate 280.

"Every now and then someone knocks over a hive," said veteran beekeeper Karen Peteros, co-founder of nonprofit group San Francisco Bee-Cause. "But this went beyond that; it was mayhem violence."

Hundreds, if not thousands of bees, were killed, said Cameo Wood, who serves on the board of San Francisco Bee-Cause. The surviving bees temporarily became more aggressive - a sign of trauma - and the beekeepers lost hundreds of dollars in equipment.

This isn't the first time that tended honeybees in San Francisco have been attacked. Two years ago, an estimated 120,000 to 200,000 of the yellow-and-black pollinators were killed when a culprit or culprits apparently sprayed pesticide through the vents of three hives at Hayes Valley Farm. Police were alerted, but no one was caught.

Now, Peteros is using the gated Hayes Valley Farm, off of Oak and Fell streets, as a refugee camp for the menaced honeybees from the less-secure Alemany Farm.

Peteros relocated two of the affected bee colonies to the community-operated Hayes Valley Farm on June 25, the day after their hives were destroyed. She plans to move a third one, which didn't suffer as much damage, this weekend.

Meanwhile, she has been keeping close watch on the two colonies she moved last month. One of them apparently lost its queen bee, and she released a replacement in that hive on Thursday.

Still, beekeepers aren't giving up on Alemany Farm altogether.

Apiarists affiliated with the San Francisco Beekeepers Association plan to continue maintaining a handful of hives on the property, said organization president Philip Gerrie. But they're more out of the way than the ones recently destroyed - and protected in locked metal cages and chained down to prevent tipping.

Vandalism is one of the perils of beekeeping on public lands. Hives kept in backyards and on rooftops, which are becoming more commonplace in San Francisco, are less vulnerable to harassment.

Gerrie said the hives kept at Alemany Farm have been subjected to people tossing rocks at them or trying to tip them over. But what happened last month, he said, went beyond the usual problems. "I hadn't seen that degree of destruction," he said.

Jason Mark, co-manager of Alemany Farm, called the act disturbing and out of character. "We've had little vandalism in the last four or five years," he said. "This is really unfortunate, but luckily is the exception, not the rule."