The journeying of around five millionhoneybeeson their room to Alaska ended in tragedy latterly as they wereredirected by Delta Air Lines . After neglect a connecting flight , the bees were entrust outside for days during which clip most of them died from overheating and starvation .
The bee were being sent from Sacramento , California , to beekeeper Sarah McElrea in Anchorage , who has a dear business . The bee are n’t native to the neighborhood , so pollinator such as these bees are imported for commercial , hobbyist , and pollination intention .
Disaster struck as the bees ’ flight course was changed , instead sending them to Atlanta where they would charm a connecting escape to Anchorage . However , the plane carry them did n’t land in time and instead the bee were left sitting with the airport ’s loading .
Some bee then escaped from the container , so airport workers decided to move the crate containing the millions of insect outside of the cargo alcove on hot macadam . Here , the bees were exposed to eminent temperatures and keep without access to intellectual nourishment for three days , reportsThe Washington Post .
When the bees did n’t arrive as scheduled in Anchorage , McElrea called on the aid of the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association ( MABA ) to see if anyone could get to the bees in metre and monitor the situation . Hobbyist beekeeper Edward Morgan answered the call .
“ It had been really raging outside and the bee needed to be keep cool and they needed sugar sirup to survive,”Morgan order the Post . “ [ McElrea ] told me it was urgent , so I hurried over to the airport with my bee vacuum , my bee loge and a bunch of other equipment . I had no idea what to expect . ”
Morgan realized the bees ’ container had been placed upside - down , reportsThe New York Times , which had made it impossible for them to reach the food contained within them . After being removed from the ice chest by airport staff , they were also expose to temperatures of around 83 ° F ( 28.3 ° C ) which was too hot for them to support .
While the entire number lost is n’t known , Morgan and other members of the MABA did what they could to recover the survivor .
“ I recall I was going to go facilitate this woman get her bee on a plane,”he told the Times . “ But it grow into something totally dissimilar . The bee community of interests came together . Everybody was render to check that that these bee suffer a home . ”
