My friend was on oxford st today and said it was madness
If i was there i would have taken the next bus home
Quote:
A 5,000-strong swarm of honeybees has caused a buzz by nesting on a shop front in the middle of central London. The bees descended on a discount sign on the window of Topshop on Victoria Street, turning the fashion store display into a wall of insects.
It is understood the unusual nesting place was picked by the queen bee, who landed there first and was quickly followed by her devoted colony. Shoppers stopped to take photographs of the unusual sight in a busy area of London.
Tony Mann, a project manager at nearby John Lewis and a trained beekeeper, dashed over to the shop to lead efforts to smoke the European honeybee colony out.
Mann, wearing a white beekeeping suit and netted hat, said: "We have either had a virgin queen or an old queen. She has left the nest, and she has brought the swarm and settled on the shop front."
He said some of the bees were flying around the area "like scouts to try to find out where the next best place to go is".
He added: "We are going to smoke them into a box and encourage them to stay there. We will remove them later today."
Asked where the bees will be taken, he said: "They will go to whoever wants a hive. We need bees in London as much as we need them on the countryside. Bees are a keystone species."
It is common for honeybees to swarm and set up a new hive during the spring time.
The colony was later safely moved across the road to the roof of Westminster cathedral, where it will be looked after by beekeepers.
It is not known where the bees originally came from, but several shops in the local area do have their own hives.
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The Guardian