Their chances of survival are high based on the rural location of the accident, the time of year, and the observed behavior of the swarms.
After a delivery truck overturned in Whatcom County, approximately 15 million bees were accidentally freed, according to authorities. The cleanup operation has been completed, and the affected roads that were closed off are now accessible again, as confirmed by the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office over the weekend.
Beekeepers present at the scene mentioned that the bees are expected to disperse and adapt to the wild environment, potentially forming new colonies in the nearby forests or integrating with existing ones. The initial projections of hundreds of millions of bees have been revised downward by Whatcom County.
Despite the unprecedented circumstances, beekeepers involved in the incident believe that the bees have a strong likelihood of surviving due to the rural setting of the incident, the time of the year, and the behavior exhibited by the swarms during the cleanup process.
However, some bees are expected to die from damage sustained to many of the hives.
The wayward European honeybees are generally not aggressive and tend to become aggressive only when provoked.
“It was pretty amazing,” Condit said. “The heightened state of energy was palpable; you could feel it. It was actually a little more calm.”
Weidkamp Road, the site of the accident, reopened Saturday afternoon.
The truck hauling an estimated 70,000 pounds of honeybee hives rolled over around 4 a.m Friday. close to the Canadian border near Lynden, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said in social media posts.
It appears the driver did not navigate a tight turn well enough, causing the trailer to roll into a ditch, county emergency management spokesperson Amy Cloud said in an email. The driver was uninjured, Cloud said.
A request to confirm the intended destination of the truck was not immediately returned.
Dr. Katie Buckley, a pollinator health coordinator for the Washington State Department of Agriculture, was called to consult on the cleanup.
In an interview with KING 5, Buckley shared similar optimism about the now-wild bees: many are likely to be OK.
“Bees are actually surprisingly sturdy,” Buckley said.
While some bees likely died in the crash, she believes many will return to their hives and continue on to their final destination.
Although this was the first incident she has consulted on, Buckley said it’s not the first time she has heard of a bee delivery truck crash.
“I usually hear about one or two reports a year,” she said.
Transporting millions of bees, it turns out, can be a tricky and delicate process.
Buckley said honeybees are trucked across the United States and internationally to pollinate a variety of crops.
The Associated Press and KING 5’s Helen Smith contributed to this report
