14 million bees escaped an overturned truck in Washington State

Residents of Washington State’s Whatcom County were issued a most startling and unusual notice by their Sheriff’s Office on Friday morning: “250 million bees are now loose. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.” While I applaud the calm, neutral language of this alert… WTF?! So here’s what happened: a commercial truck was transporting 70,000 pounds of honey beehives when the vehicle overturned at 4am on Friday, May 30. By 9am, the beehives had fallen off the truck, hence the mass jailbreak, necessitating a road closure. Luckily, local Master Beekeepers came to the rescue to assist authorities. It was an arduous task, given the beehives had to be rebuilt at the scene, but all clean up efforts were declared complete by Saturday. The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) also eventually confirmed that their original estimates were grossly exaggerated; instead of 250 million escabees, it was more like 14 million. (“Oh, that’s much better,” she said sarcastically.) People Mag has all the buzz:

“Master beekeepers are on scene, and others are on the way, to assist in re-setting the box hives,” WCSO said, per the news release. “The plan is to allow the bees to re-hive and find their queen bee. That should occur within the next 24-48 hours. The goal is to save as many of the bees as possible.”

WCSO deputies and Whatcom County Public Works responded to the scene, along with the WCSO Division of Emergency Management (DEM), who were assisted by several Master Beekeepers.

Authorities have advised locals to avoid Weidkamp between Loomis Trail Road and West Badger, Berthusen Park, for at least 200 yards, as the area remains closed for the next 24 to 48 hours.

Derek Condit, author of The Natural Beekeeper’s Path: Treatment-Free Practices for a Living World, volunteered to help collect the bees. He explained to Komo News that the beehives “crushed” into each other when the truck fell over, so they’re having to “rebuild” them, which has been a delicate and difficult process.

“It’s not necessarily something we can go up with the keepers and just grab the beehives that are collapsing and falling apart,” Condit told the outlet. “So we’re basically one by one rebuilding the beehives, putting the frames back in and have to stack them.”

“These bees are going to swarm in the local areas and start new hives, luckily, so there will be re-pollination in this area, but there will be great losses as well,” he added.

Condit posted a video on Facebook, showing millions of honey bees buzzing in the air during the recollection process. He sported a white beekeeper suit while joined by other rescuers in protective gear.

[From People]

As of this writing, People still hasn’t updated their article to reflect that it was 14 million bees instead of 250 million. WCSO issued a correction to their Facebook page, with the following last line: “Thank you to those who challenged the math and helped us get closer to the true number.” As per usual, I have questions. Who is doing said math, and what even had their honeybee senses tingling to think, “Nah, 250 million is ridiculous. 14 million bees sounds much more appropriate.” The area was closed off for the clean up, so it’s not like this was a visual guestimation. And even if it was all visual — is it possible to gauge the difference between 14 and 250 million bees in a swarm? Not for this rookie! No joke, you could show me an image of 100 bees and I’d cosign on it being 250 million. But getting back to these bee math truthers, was it some equation to do with how many bees per hive multiplied by hives on the truck? (I’m not completely math illiterate, just mostly!) However these people arrived at their conclusions, I’m amazed. Amazed that they were smart enough to know something was off, to know how to make a more accurate guess, and that they cared enough to contact their Sheriff’s Office to correct the number. By contrast, when I hear “loose bees,” I make immediate arrangements to stay the f–k away.

Finally, I must salute all the citizens of Whatcom County for turning out in a crisis… to deliver some truly bee-utiful bee puns on the WCSO Facebook page. Top Three:

1. “Didn’t have this on my bee-ngo card.”
2. “I cannot Bee-lieve this happened. Beee + to the one doing the math. Not that it is any of my Bees Wax.”
3. “I wonder if the driver was drinking… like seriously buzz driving is drunk driving.”