Millions of honeybees escape in Texas neighborhood after semi-truck carrying 400 hives tips over

Published: 21:50, 24 June 2026 | Updated: 21:52, 24 June 2026 Over two million bees were released into the air of a southeastern Texas rural neighborhood after a semi-truck carrying over 400 hives tipped over. The incident occurred June 21 in Orange County, after an 18-wheeler transferring 408 colonies of commercial bees turned over. The number of bees in a colony can fluctuate between 40 and 80 thousand making the total bees being transferred estimated around 24 million. According to local apiary business, Queen Bee Supply LLC, the truck had just been loaded and was on its way to North Dakota. The driver allegedly took an accidental turn into a neighborhood with narrow roads and tipped while trying to navigate a tight corner. Jake Moore, co-manager of Moore Honey, posted a video on social media saying the driver should not have been there. 'It was a wrong turn, never should have happened.' Moore also stated that the bees and equipment can weigh up to 45-48 thousand pounds.  Jake's father and business partner, Chris Moore, claimed it was not a major accident. 'All that happened was the truck just slowly laid over in the ditch.'  On June 21, millions of bees escaped in an Orange County neighborhood after a semi-truck carrying 408 hives tipped over Many local beekeepers worked with county emergency services for over six hours to manually unload the colonies from the truck and transport them to a nearby honey farm Around one quarter of the bees are estimated to have survived the incident After the crash, Orange County Emergency Services shut down roads in the area and issued a warning urging residents to remain indoors while the county sheriff's office and assisting agencies responded to the scene. County services along with multiple local beekeepers worked together in the recovery effort to safely transfer the hives onto transport trucks that were headed to a nearby honey farm.  Multiple backyard hobbyists and commercial beekeepers alike volunteered to help collect the stray bees and clean the area. Christie Ray of Queen Bee Supply LLC reportedly supplied protective gear for first responders who were unable to approach the wreckage, along with documenting the cleanup through photo and video. According to Ray, the cleanup took about six hours once the crews arrived and consisted of unloading more than 1,200 boxes by hand. Jake Moore believes that a lot of the colonies involved in the crash will likely not survive. 'The beekeeper would be lucky if 25 to 30 percent of them actually made it through this.' No serious injuries have been reported, and officials have not yet publicly identified the owner of the hives.  'When something goes wrong, the consequences can be enormous - not just for the bees, but for the beekeeper whose livelihood is riding on that truck,' Moore said. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.