On April 17th, a truck carrying a load of 458 hives rolled over on Interstate 5 and scattered nearly 14 million bees across the highway.
State highway officials said the truck was merging onto Interstate 5 when the driver lost control and hit a guardrail. The truck’s driver claims that a blown tire caused the crash. Investigators are looking into whether speed was an issue.
Beekeepers arrived at the crash scene and used smoke to calm the bees and got them back into their boxes. They were able to save 128 hives before dawn. Once the sun came up and temperatures started to rise, the bees became agitated and fire fighters had no choice but to cover the bees with a thick layer of firefighting foam.
Construction equipment was later brought in to scoop up the remaining boxes of bees. The value of the lost bees was estimated to be as much as $90,000.
Beekeepers routinely rent their hives for crop pollination and with different regions requiring bees at different times, it is common for bees to be shipped from one farm to another. Drivers travel mostly at night, when bees are less active.
“The bees were likely coming from California before Sunnyside,” said Mark Emrich, President of the Washington State Beekeepers Association. “After California, they work their way north to do fruits, bush berries and vegetables.”
Bee colonies are very difficult to recover because the entire hive must stay intact, with the queen, worker bees and attendant bees. Emrich said, “The ones (hives) on the outside and split open on the road: that’s just done. You can’t unring the bell.”
