The Montreal, Que. neighbourhood of Lachine was all abuzz on Tuesday as a massive colony of bees swept through the area before coming to rest on nearby tree.
Lachine resident James Westover described the colony鈥檚 arrival as an 鈥渁pocalypse of bees.鈥� The swarm is estimated to have contained more than 30,000 insects.
鈥淭he sky was full of bees, covered with bees,鈥� he told 麻豆影视. 鈥淚t was insane. I never saw something like that in my life.鈥�
Westover called the city, and the city called bee expert Alexandre Beaudoin and his team. Dressed only in street clothes, Beaudoin climbed the tree where the bees were nesting and vacuumed them up into carrying boxes. He and his team then relocated the bees to a safer area.
鈥淲e like to help people when people are afraid of bees in the city,鈥� Beaudoin told 麻豆影视.
Beaudoin, a biodiversity consultant at the University of Montreal, said the wayward colony may have been an urban beekeeper鈥檚 hive, perhaps looking for greener pastures.
Or at least, pastures with more flowers.
鈥淲e all know that bees are not going well right now,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e heard a bit about the colony collapse disorder, which is like the extinction of the bees, so people want to help.鈥�
Many would-be bee saviours have embraced urban beekeeping as a way to keep the honey-makers around. But Beaudoin said that鈥檚 not the answer, as city bees often struggle to find food sources in urban environments. 鈥淭he idea is not to have one more hive in town. The idea is to change your grass for clover, or thyme, or something like that. Just put flowers that will help the pollinators to feed themselves,鈥� Beaudoin said.
It鈥檚 not the first time Beaudoin has played honey bee hero. Two weeks ago, emergency responders called him in to remove a colony of bees from the back of a in downtown Montreal. For that case, Beaudoin found the colony鈥檚 queen and relocated it. The rest of the swarm followed.
Starving bee colonies have been known to migrate en masse in search of a better place to live.
With files from CTV Montreal
