Millions Of Honeybees Die After Being Left Out On Hot Tarmac At Atlanta Airport

Five million honeybees were scheduled to fly on Delta Air Lines to Anchorage, Alaska, but were rerouted to Atlanta which resulted in the death of nearly all the bees on board.

According to The New York Times, the bees died of starvation and heat exhaustion after being left outside for hours on the hot tarmac in Atlanta.

Alaska beekeeper Sarah McElrea ordered the bees from a distributor in California to pollinate apple orchards, nurseries, and add to the hives of over 300 Alaskan beekeepers. She became worried when the bees didn’t make their connecting flight. She was informed by Delta that some of the bees escaped, and the others were placed outside a cargo bay.

McElrea knew the bees needed to get out of the heat and immediately reached out to beekeepers in Atlanta for help.

Edward ‘Bean’ Morgan Jr and 20 other beekeepers from the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association (MABA) arrived at the airport to try and save the bees.

“It’s devastating to see that many dead,” Julia Mahood, a Georgia Master Beekeeper, told WABE. “Just clumps of dead bees that had no chance because they were left outside with no food and basically got lost in Delta’s machinery.”

Beekeepers were able to save thousands of bees that will remain in Georgia under their care and hopefully survive.

McElrea, owner of Sarah’s Alaska Honey, took to Facebook to share her frustration and heartbreak over the situation. “Financial ramifications aside, these bees suffered, and died, due to ignorance and incompetence. I’m absolutely heartbroken,” she posted. “Say a prayer for those kind folks in Georgia that are doing all they can to preserve what’s left. We will spend the next year working on a long-term solution to this issue. Bees are way too important for something like this to ever, ever happen.”

Steve Estes, who was supposed to add some of the bees to his hive in Fairbanks, Alaska, commented on the MABA post. He wrote, “I want to thank Edward for his heroic efforts. Also MABA for making the best of a terrible situation. Two of those packages were to populate our hives in Fairbanks Alaska this summer. We have been informed that replacement packages are due to arrive starting Thursday. We feel so sorry for those bees that were to be part of our family. Thanks again, Edward and MABA.”

McElrea is receiving another shipment from the California distributor and has never had an issue with shipping until this devastating incident. However, she is taking additional steps to protect the precious bees and setting up backup plans in case a flight gets delayed or rerouted.

She thanked everyone who stepped up to help and told local news KCLL, “I will forever be grateful for anything that they were able to salvage. They just assembled quickly and efficiency and really are the heroes in this scenario.”

Delta apologized for the “unfortunate situation” and said they are taking measures to prevent this from occurring again.

Honeybee populations are already declining at an alarming rate, and they need our help. These hardworking bees are responsible for one in every three bites of food we eat, and we cannot survive without them.

You can help save bees by planting native wildflowers and not spraying harmful pesticides.