The land smoldered. The air reeked of burnt honeycomb, the sickly sweet smell cut with black smoke. More than 2,000 beehives destroyed. Not numbers, not statistics, but the deaths of tens of millions of bees. Each wooden box is a tomb. Behind them, faces and lives gutted. Farmers stare into fields that look back with ash for eyes. Pain raw, thick as smoke.
The flames didn’t ask. They tore through Selino’s undergrowth, leaping from brush to hive, eating everything. The fire hit on Saturday, July 26, 2025. It waited for no one. Old men and young women, hands stung and blistered, scrambled to save what they could. Most lost everything. Chania’s land of wild thyme and sunflowers, bruised and blackened.
One voice boomed through the choking silence. The Chania Beekeepers Association, known as “The Bee,” called out, “Disaster struck at least 2,000 hives in the Selino fire. We beg for direct help now. Donate hives to those wiped out by the flames.” Relief, if it comes, must come fast. There’s no time for hesitation. No honey flows from ashes.
Official quote: “Disaster struck at least 2,000 hives in the Selino fire. We beg for direct help now. Donate hives to those wiped out by the flames.”
- Cost per modern beehive: 150 to 250 euros
- Replacement for 2,000+ hives: 300,000 to 500,000 euros
- Average bee colony value (including tools, bees, production): 300 to 500 euros per hive
- Total economic hit: 600,000 to 1 million euros
- Income lost per season: up to 60,000 euros per beekeeper affected
Scraping Out Hope: The Call for Rescue
What’s left when the honey runs red and the bees don’t come home? Desperation, then resolve. The beekeepers, tough as old vines, aren’t giving up. They ask for hands, for donations, for survivors to help survivors. Enough with pity, they want action: hives for hives, box for box. Each one counts. The wounds must clot now, before honey season breaks all over again.
Tourists hear of Chania’s wild honey. They come for the sweet smoke and the golden sunlight, for the hum and the labor. But now, those fields are silent. Visitors, locals, and anyone who walks these hot stones can help. The Association put out a number: “Anyone who wants to help, call the Chania Beekeeping Center at 28210-29808.” The need is plain. Aid moves in wood, wax, and living bees.
Those hit hardest have another deadline looming. By Tuesday, July 29, victims must contact the ELGA office in Heraklion (phone numbers: 2810264205, 2810264208). The bureaucracy bites cold, but they need the register to get a chance at recovery. The clock ticks. The burn still smolders.
In the distance, the mountains stand black and silent. A few hives might survive, battered ghosts in a sea of coal. The cycle breaks, but the hunger does not.
The sky is thick, the hope thin, but it is not gone.
“Disaster struck at least 2,000 hives in the Selino fire. We beg for direct help now. Donate hives to those wiped out by the flames.”