Bee Swarm Shuts Down Midtown Block For Hours, Police Say

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A Midtown Manhattan block was shut down for several hours Friday when thousands of bees swarmed a maintenance van, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

About 2,000 honey bees swarmed the yellow van parked outside 5 East 47th Street, located between Fifth and Madison Avenues shortly after 11 a.m. Friday, an NYPD spokesman said. The NYPD beekeeper — yes, that is a real position — worked for hours to suck the bees up with a Colorado bee vacuum. The device supposedly "gently vacuums" the insects, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

While the beekeeper operated on the scene of the swarm the block was shut down to pedestrian and vehicular traffic, police told Patch. The street was reopened around 4 p.m., an NYPD spokesman said.

While it's not totally clear why the bees chose to hang out in the van, it's apparently bee "swarming season" an NYPD spokesman said. The bees were likely a group of scouts — from a larger colony — in search of a new permanent home.

Nobody was injured during the bee swarm, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

Photo by Umberto Salvagnin via Flickr/Creative Commons