URBANA, Ill. — When a semi-truck carrying hundreds of honey bee colonies crashed and overturned in Washington state last week, it wasn’t just a roadside mess — it was a potentially devastating economic blow to the beekeeping operation behind it, said Brittney Goodrich, assistant professor of agricultural and consumer economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Commercial beekeepers in the U.S. routinely transport hives by truck, moving between crops that require pollination and regions where blooming flowers support honey production. Each semi-truckload typically carries 400 to 480 hives, Goodrich estimates based on her 2019 research paper.
According to USDA values, each honey bee colony is worth about $129, and a woodenware hive is valued at $230 per hive. So if a truck carrying 450 colonies tips over, that could amount to a potential loss of more than $160,000, she calculated.
Read the full article from the College of ACES.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy.