Bees Being All They Can Bee On Upper East Side

Yesterday wasn't just unusual because the sun actually came out—on the Upper East Side, residents saw 8,000-10,000 bees emerge (video) from a hive on Lexington between 80th and 81st Streets! The Post claims that the bees "had surreptitiously moved into the neighborhood sometime in the past month and managed to build a giant hive in a tree... without anyone noticing." Gasp—Upper East Siders, your nosy neighbor quotient is slipping! Anyway, the swarm got moving because the queen bee went out for a flight around 4 p.m., and naturally her loyal "subjects" followed her. An onlooker said, "It was a three foot column of bees." Enter the NYPD's resident beekeeper (who knew?) Police Officer Anthony Planakis who declared it "one of the biggest swarms I've ever seen" and promised to take them "to a farm in Connecticut to pollinate." Last month, a swarm of bees were the main attraction in Union Square.