Authorities rushed to capture five million bees released after a truck carrying several boxes of hives plunged onto a road in Ontario, Canada, on Thursday (31), according to police officer Ryan Anderson. CNN .
Halton Regional Police received a call shortly after 6am local time on Wednesday after straps attached to hive boxes came loose and released millions of bees onto the road in Burlington, Anderson told the CNN by phone.
After police shared a post on social media warning residents and vehicles to stay away from the area, about six or seven local beekeepers volunteered to help get the bees back to safety, Anderson said.
“Within a few hours, most of the bees were safely back in the hives, in the boxes, and were safely loaded back into the trailer,” Anderson said.
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A local Canadian beekeeper was one of the volunteers who helped capture some of the five million bees.
Michael Barber, owner of Tri-City Bee Rescue in nearby Guelph, said he received a call from the police around 7am local time on Wednesday to help with the rescue of the bees.
The bees were being transported after being used locally for pollination, Barber told the CNN by phone.
Barber explained that usually at this time of year, beekeepers work to bring bees back to their backyard winter home.
“In this case, they [abelhas] they left the farmer’s field before harvesting and were simply taken back to the backyard,” he said.
“There were probably about 40 hives in the trailer, and about 20 hives came out of the trailer because [o motorista] was trying to avoid running over a deer,” added Barber.
“Once I got to the scene, I was talking to the beekeeper involved in the accident, asking how we could best help, and we came up with a plan.”
After nearly four hours, several boxes were left on the side of the road in hopes that the remaining bees that had flown away would return to their queen in the hive and be picked up later, Anderson said.
Police say the first beekeeper was stung repeatedly but there were no serious injuries following the swarm of bees in the area.
Police could not provide further details on why and where the bees were being transported, but Anderson said it is not uncommon for bees to be transported to help farmers with pollination.
Anderson said it was a collective effort by residents, officials and local beekeepers to clear the road and allow everyone to reach their destination safely.
“Everyone kind of pitched in,” Anderson said. “I was told that even some locals helped, people from the area or passers-by.”
“It was a collective effort by residents and beekeepers that safely and quickly cleaned up the site as we had hoped.”
Barber said that while it was sad to witness the number of bees that died in the incident, the help provided by the group of local beekeepers was a beautiful show of community.
“It was sad to be there and see the carnage and the number of dead bees on the road,” said Barber. “But it was really nice to see all the beekeepers coming out and just trying to help. ”
Source: CNN Brasil
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