A Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) is a transient network of wireless mobile nodes operating without centralized administration or pre-existing infrastructure. VANETs are a subset of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) designed to facilitate vehicular communication. This allows vehicles to communicate directly with roadside devices or with each other. These networks are appropriate for applications like infotainment services, traffic control, and accident avoidance since they are dynamic, decentralized, and highly flexible. However, their lack of established infrastructure presents serious difficulties, especially when preserving dependable routing and energy efficiency. Path selection in VANETs usually attempts to limit the number of intermediary nodes required to reach a destination to reduce latency and possible points of failure. However, as the distance between nodes increases, so does the required transmission power, directly impacting the network's energy consumption. As a result, energy-efficient routing is crucial to maintain network longevity and performance. This paper introduces the Bee Destination Sequenced Distance Vector Routing (B-DSDV) protocol, utilizing swarm intelligence principles via the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm to enhance energy efficiency within a DSDV framework. This integration incorporates the Bee Algorithm into the discovery mechanism of DSDV to identify the most accessible node and the shortest route based on node distances. The algorithm assesses both the power levels of nodes and their distances to others. Route selection is optimized by considering the power consumption of intermediate nodes between the source and destination. Performance evaluation of the B-DSDV protocol is compared with established protocols, demonstrating its effectiveness in selecting high-power optimal paths and improving overall performance. The simulation results were conducted based on average throughput, average energy consumption, average end-to-end delay, and packet delivery ratio performance metrics. We conducted a simulation study using Network Simulator (NS) version 2.35 to evaluate the performance metrics of the routing protocols. Regarding energy consumption, the B-DSDV protocol achieved superior results, approximately 0.10% concerning packet size, compared to other protocols.