Wild video shows beekeeper saving thousands of bees from being killed in Texas

The lengths a Texas beekeeper goes to save thousands of bees underneath a shed have gotten the attention of social media users.

The video Erika Thompson shared on Instagram on Friday has more than 920,000 views as of Monday afternoon. The same video has been viewed more than 60 million times on TikTok.

Thompson is the owner of Austin-based Texas Beeworks and her videos have allowed people to get a first-hand look at how intense her job can be.

In the most recent video, Thompson said bees had been living in a backyard shed for two years. The landlord wanted to hire an exterminator, but the family who lived at the home wanted to save the bees.

So the family called Thompson, whose company’s mission is to “preserve, protect and increase honeybee populations across the Lone Star State.”

Thompson is shown lifting a panel off the floor, exposing a giant hive containing thousands of bees. But there were plenty more. She had to remove a second section of the flooring to access the whole hive.

She removed the hive and placed it into a new one, “so the bees would have everything they need to survive,” she said.

With her bare hands, Thompson is shown scooping bees and putting them into the new hive. A stream of bees followed, and Thompson found the queen bee about 15 minutes later.

Thompson put the queen bee in a confined area in the new hive to keep her safe, she said. By the next morning, the entirety of the colony had made its way into their new home.

Asked if she ever gets stung, Thompson responded by saying, “Absolutely. It’s really just an occupational hazard.”

The bees now live on Thompson’s 5-acre farm, she wrote.

“I live on 5 acres on the Colorado River so they have a lot of things to forage,” she said on Instagram.

This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Wild video shows beekeeper saving thousands of bees from being killed in Texas."