Bees Swarm Texas Dumpster Filled With Unopened Boxes of Krispy Kreme Donuts

Bees swarmed a dumpster in Texas, which was filled to the brim with unopened boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts.

A clip on Reddit shows the garbage receptacle full to the brim with the confectionery, featuring the audible buzz of the insects.

The video was shared to the site's Interesting As F*** forum, on Wednesday, where it amassed more than 18,000 upvotes.

It was originally shared to Reddit's Beekeeping forum that same day by u/meltedwhisky, aka Matt, who captioned it: "Dumpster full of Krispy Kreme's ~ I had to stop and open boxes for them."

Matt told Newsweek he's a third generation beekeeper, living in San Antonio. He said: "Subconsciously while driving, I am looking for black clouds of bees that can be a swarm to capture.

"Couple days ago, this caught my eye, but instead of a swarm, it was bees robbing sugar.

"Now that it's fall and there is very little floral source, bees rob to supply the hive for the winter.

"Additionally, we've had the driest summer in history, so there was never a solid honey source for the bees."

The clip shows numerous donut flavors which had been thrown out, including original glazed, chocolate iced and even some with sprinkles. Matt confirmed the blue 20-yard dumpster was full of boxes of expired donuts.

He added: "The bees were trying to get in to rob, so I spent about a half hour and opened roughly 100 boxes for the bees to clean up."

The sight drew a variety of responses, who shared fear over coming face to face with a swarm, while others voiced criticism for the disposal of large quantities of food.

Maximans asked: "What's the point of not letting employees or other people take home the leftovers at the end of the day? It's all getting thrown out anyway."

StenosP wrote: "Given we don't know why they were tossed, and granted good food is tossed regularly, it is possible that these were made from a bad dough batch or unclean equipment.

ElectronicTank4239 said: "Corporations would go through excruciating length to not give anything to the homeless."

Pangalaticgargler wrote: "Generally when dumping due to contamination you want to mark the product so that people don't dive and take it. It isn't a legal requirement but most food places I worked would have you bag and tag all these donuts."

LegallyNotInterested commented: "Exactly this. The video just shows the final result, but we have no idea why they actually got rid of it and if it could have been a health thread. Nonetheless, I also find it very hard to watch."

The chart below, provided by Statista, shows bee populations.

You will find more infographics at Statista

A few Redditors pointed to legislation in place to protect businesses wishing to donate food.

In 1996 The Bill Emerson Food Donation Act was introduced, which established federal protection from civil or criminal liability in the "donation and distribution of food and grocery products to needy individuals," as long as certain criteria is met.

This includes food and packing meeting "all quality and labeling standards imposed by Federal, state, and local laws," The U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

As long as it meets those conditions, it's acknowledged "the product may not be readily marketable due to appearance, age, freshness, grade, size, surplus, or other conditions."

On its website, Krispy Kreme states it has partnered with animal food programs regarding waste.

It says: "In 2020, we sent six million pounds of food waste from our U.S. operations to pig farms for use as animal feed and 100% of our U.K. food waste to farms for use in animal feed or to anaerobic digestion plants."

Dumpster diving has gained traction in recent years, with people salvaging food, furniture, gadgets and cosmetics from the trash.

Various social media accounts have sprung up of people documenting their hauls, and money saved, as they rifled through garbage of well-known brands.

Foodwastestudies.com, The International Food Loss and Food Waste Studies Group, noted its surge, also known as freeganism or freegans, saying: "With so many supermarkets throwing away food at the end of each work day and the constant shrinkage of the labour market, it's no wonder why some people would try and look for alternative means of living."

But there are pitfalls, including the legality of dumpster diving, a gray area, as well as health and safety risks.

"Another problem freegans face is health issues," the site noted, adding: "There is always the risk of food poisoning."

Newsweek reached out to Krispy Kreme for additional comment.