14 Million Bees Escape After Truck Overturns in Washington State

[WonderMomma]

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/million...ty-washington/

(Videos obtained from separate source)

14 million bees escape after truck overturns in Washington state
U.S. Updated on: May 31, 2025 / 9:56 PM EDT / CBS News

Approximately 14 million bees escaped after a tractor-trailer carrying more than 70,000 pounds of pollinator hives rolled over Friday in northern Washington state, authorities said.

The commercial truck hauling the honeybees overturned at about 4 a.m. in Whatcom County, Washington, which borders Canada's British Columbia, the sheriff's office said in a social media post. It's unclear what caused the truck to roll over.

The hives came off the truck shortly after 9 a.m., which freed the bees. The incident happened on Weidkamp Road, which remains closed between Loomis Trail and West Badger roads, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office said.

Authorities said the public should avoid the area and stay at least 600 feet away.

"While there is no general health risk to the public, anyone who is allergic to bee stings or has concerns should check the State Department of Health webpage on bees and wasps," the sheriff's office said.

Authorities said the road where the truck overturned was closed for about 24 hours to allow the bees to re-hive and find their queen bee.

More than two dozen beekeepers came to assist with the rescue, the sheriff's office said, adding: "The goal is to save as many of the bees as possible."

"At this time, on-scene work is done. Hive boxes from the overturned truck were recovered, restored and returned to use," authorities said in an update. "By morning, most bees should have returned to their hives and those responsible for their delivery will be in charge."

Initially, officials said that some 250 million bees escaped but they corrected the tally on Saturday, citing a beekeeper who assisted at the scene.

"Thank you to those who challenged the math and helped us get closer to the true number," officials said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Initial information on the number of bees provided by the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office was inaccurate and the story has been corrected.

[kellyhound]

Over two dozen master beekeepers responded to rebuild about 300 hives, aiming to help bees return to their queens within 24-48 hours. Most bees were expected to survive and continue to their destination (likely Montana or the Dakotas for honey production).

Never knew they did it this way. Wasn't there a similar accident in Maine last year or something? Hope the bees can return to their queen.

[William May]

I had an Africanized bee infestation in the sides of my Mom's house. Someone told me to call this lady in Tucson, she does humane bee removal, and swaps out Africanized Queens with European Queens. I left her to her work, and she called about 4 hours later and said she had removed the queen, replaced it with a European Queen, gathered all the bees and took them all to her ranch where she has hives to move them into. Now this weekend she just posted that her Dad had died, back east. It turns out he has been doing Queen transplants for nearly 50 years, and is internationally recognized for bringing ANY bees under control, extracting the Evil Queen, and replacing her with a specially bred European Queens, which he himself had been doing since a teen in the 1950's, (not on African Queens, because they had not arrived in the U.S. but with difficult Queens that were causing problems with beekeepers hives and had to be changed out.) Her name is Monica King. His name was Dave Miksa. You can read about him on the beekeeper websites. He was in Florida