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.