Millions of honeybees flooded a rural neighborhood in Texas on Sunday after a semitrailer transporting approximately 400 hives overturned, according to emergency officials.
Authorities in Orange County, Texas — a county situated east of Houston along the Louisiana border — closed off roads near the crash site and urged residents to remain inside their homes while workers unloaded the truck and attempted to rescue as many hives as they could.
No bee stings or serious injuries were reported in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Officials have not yet identified who owns the hives.
Christie Ray, owner of the nearby Queen Bee Supply, said volunteers from three or four beekeeping operations in the surrounding area showed up at the crash scene to lend a hand.
“They just help each other, that’s what they do,” Ray said. “The beekeeping community is a great community.”
Chris Moore, who runs Moore Honey, arrived at the scene alongside his son and several of his workers to assist with the recovery effort. However, Moore estimated that only roughly one out of every four of the 408 hives will make it — an outcome that largely hinges on how many queen bees survived the crash.
Moore noted that the financial blow to a beekeeping business depends on its overall size, but the losses go beyond just the hives themselves — the owner is also losing the income those hives would have generated.
“It’s a big loss,” Moore said. “Any time you lose that many in one shot, it’s a big loss.”
Large-scale beekeeping operations routinely transport hives across the country, Moore explained, both to support commercial crop pollination in states like California and to follow blooming seasons through the South and Midwest for honey production.
The hives involved in Sunday’s crash had barely begun their journey — headed for North Dakota — when the truck driver made a wrong turn and ended up on narrow residential roads, Moore said. The trailer toppled over as the driver attempted to navigate a tight corner.
Other beekeepers in the area have set out catch boxes to gather stray bees, but Moore said it will likely be some time before the insects fully disperse from the neighborhood.
This is not the first such incident in recent months. Back in April, a truck loaded with bees was involved in a crash that backed up interstate traffic near Knoxville, Tennessee.
