Manhattan locals got quite the surprise today when a swarm of bees shut down a busy street after they decided to call a shop umbrella their home. Seriously though, a woman who works in the area tweeted the happenings writing: "The building manager just announced over the PA that the NYPD is shutting down 43rd because of a “small swarm of bees” and everyone laughed, but I just checked Twitter for photos and this is no joke."
The bee takeover happened just after 1 PM today (August 28th) where the NYPD was forced to call on a beekeeper to properly avert the crisis using a vacuum.
Thankfully, there have been no reported injuries from the bee takeover. “Swarming is the honey bee’s method of colony reproduction. The old queen and about half of the worker bees leave their former nest and seek a new home, usually in the spring but sometimes at other times of the year when local conditions permit," University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources reports. "To start the process, certain worker bees, called “scouts,” begin to canvass the surrounding territory for a potential new nesting site even before the swarm leaves its original colony.”
Check out more photos of the takeover below.