At least 10 million bees were thrown out of their hives when a truck carrying them from California to North Dakota overturned on Highway 80 in Utah on Monday morning.
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The crash happened because the truck was speeding around a corner, Cameron Roden, public information officer for the Utah Highway Patrol, told CNN.
The driver was taken to a hospital with minor injuries and numerous bee stings.
One of the lanes then had to be closed for more than four hours to clean up the accident site, where 416 boxes of honey bees were located.
“At least 10 million bees were in the air,” noted Julie Arthur, president of the Wasatch Beekeepers Association, who was called to the scene in an attempt to capture the huge swarm.
A rescue mission was therefore set up the next day to try to recover as many bees as possible. Ms Arthur, however, described the scene as a “gigantic mess”, with honey and wax melting in the sun.
“Not much equipment was salvageable, but we found a huge pile of bees at the back of the hill,” she told the outlet.
“We just started stacking bees in boxes as fast as we could. They weren’t pretty. They had just been dumped from a truck and most of them had lost their queen.
Nearly 10% of the lost bees were saved at the end of the operation.
Ironically enough, Utah is known as the “Beehive State,” with images of beehives found on all signs and monuments in the state.