Wall Street Queen Bee Heads to CT Hive

Forget the bulls and the bears. Wall Street belonged to the bees for a short while on Sunday.

The swarm of bees unnerved New Yorkers before settling on the door of Cipriani's on 55 Wall Street -- but they were removed without incident and are on their way here, to a hive at some undisclosed location in Connecticut.
 
"My daughter and I were walking down Wall Street and they were swarming, the bees were swarming up and down the street," said Duane Verner, a resident of the Wall Street area. "We thought it was regular bugs at first. We walked through and heard the buzzing noise.  And we quickly ran away…I had no idea bees lived downtown."
 
"I didn't see anybody getting stung," Verner said. "My two year old and I literally walked through the middle of the hive and didn't get stung.  So they are not angry at people today."
 
Nobody was hurt and no one panicked -- people just gathered to witness the rarity, Verner said. Police closed off a section of Wall Street to allow NYPD specialists to respond to the emergency, using a special device to suck up the bees. The bees will be taken to Connecticut to start a new life away from the bustle of lower Manhattan.
 
According to Officer Anthony Planakis, who specializes in building maintenance which apparently includes bee removal, the migration of bees is a natural occurance that happens when, like people, the bees run out of space.
 
He blames the relatively mild winter and nice spring for overcrowding a hive that caused the insects to take off and find a new random home.
 
Another witness, Joel Salinger stood 2-3 feet away from the Cipriani glass door before he realized he stumbled upon a swarm.
 
“I don’t think anyone realized what was going on," said Salinger. “I have never seen anything like this in my entire life ... It's pretty crazy."

Now, they are moving toward a slower paced life in the suburbs.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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