Canadian authorities are racing to catch five million bees spilling onto the roads

CNN
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Authorities scrambled to capture five million bees that were released yesterday, after a truck carrying several boxes of beehives fell onto a road in Ontario, Canada, Halton Provincial Police Officer Ryan Anderson told CNN.

Anderson told CNN by phone that Halton Regional Police received a call shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday, after straps attached to beehive boxes became loose and caused a spill, releasing millions of bees onto the road in Burlington.

Burlington is located south of Toronto. The city is located on the shores of Lake Ontario, between Toronto and Niagara Falls, she says website.

After police involvement A post on social media warns residents Anderson said about six or seven local beekeepers have volunteered to help return bees to safety and vehicles to stay out of the area.

“Within two hours, the majority of the bees were safely returned to their hives in their boxes, and safely loaded back onto the trailer,” Anderson said.

A local Canadian beekeeper was one of the volunteers who helped catch some of the five million bees.

Michael Barber, who owns Tri-City Bee Rescue in nearby Guelph, said he got a call from police around 7 a.m. Wednesday to help rescue the bees.

Barber told CNN by phone that the honey bees were relocated after being used locally for pollination.

Usually around this time of year, beekeepers work to get the bees back into their winter yard, Barber said.

“In this case, they would come out of the farmer’s field before they harvested their crops, and take them to their yard,” he said.

“There were probably about 40 beehives on the trailer, and about 20 beehives veered off the trailer because of [the driver] “He was trying to avoid hitting a deer,” Barber added. “As soon as I arrived at the scene of the accident, I was talking to the beekeeper who was involved in the accident, and I asked him how we could best help. [we came] with a plan.”

After the nearly four-hour ordeal, Anderson said, several boxes were left on the side of the road in the hope that the remaining bees that took off would return to their queen in the hive and be collected later.

Police say the beekeeper has been stung repeatedly, but there have been no serious injuries after the bees swarmed the area.

“The initial beekeeper on the scene was stung multiple times,” Anderson said.

Police were unable to provide further details on why and where the bees were being moved, but Anderson said it was not uncommon for bees to be moved to help farmers pollinate.

Anderson said it was a collective effort from residents, officers and local beekeepers to clear the way and allow everyone to reach their destination safely.

“Everyone was kind of involved,” Anderson said. “I’ve been told that even some locals helped, whether they were locals or passers-by.”

“It was a collective effort of residents and beekeepers that resulted in the site being cleaned up safely and as quickly as we could hope.”

Barber said it was sad to witness the number of bees that died due to the accident, but the helping hands of the local beekeepers’ group was a beautiful show to the community.

“It was heartbreaking to be on the scene and see the carnage and the amount of dead bees on the road,” Barber said. “But it was really nice to see all the beekeepers coming over to invite, and just trying to help.“