Millions of bees used in pollination die in airline shipping

By The Associated Press

A shipment of honeybees bound from California to Alaska died after an airline re-routed them through Atlanta, then left them to sit on the tarmac during hot weather. Delta Air Lines said Friday it is making changes to prevent a repeat of what happened last weekend. About 5 million honeybees were being shipped to Sarah McElrea, a beekeeper and distributor in Anchorage, Alaska. The crates holding the bees didn’t fit on the plane that was supposed to take them from Sacramento, California, to Anchorage via Seattle. Instead they were sent to Atlanta, where they arrived too late to make an Anchorage-bound flight. By the time an Atlanta beekeeper went to check on them, most of the bees were dead.