June 07--A downtown intersection was abuzz Monday afternoon with the humming of thousands of honeybees, who pedestrians say flew down a city block in a swarm before finally settling onto a bike and a lightpole.
About 1:30 p.m., approximately 7,000 to 8,000 bees clouded the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street, before they crowded onto the bike and pole, stationed in front of a Panera Bread entrance on Madison.
Pedestrians didn't react to the swarm with gasps or cries, but instead stood quietly to marvel at the thousands of bees coiled around the pole.
"Everyone's just coming up to it, everyone's just taking pictures of the bees," said Patrick Reynolds, a valet at the adjacent Chicago Athletic Association Hotel. He wore a look of bewilderment as he watched a mix of downtown workers and tourists race to the pole and snap photos. "Not once did I hear anyone say 'ouch' because they were (stung)."
Beekeepers from Bike A Bee, a beekeeping business based in Back of the Yards, arrived at the pole not long after the bees settled there, after receiving several calls and text messages from passersby. The beekeepers put on beekeeping veils, scooped up the bees with pieces of paper and plastic cups, and funneled the bees into a Langstroth beehive.
As the crowd of onlookers grew larger, the beekeepers didn't appear concerned about people getting stung.
"They don't have a mammal brain that says, 'There's people here, I'm getting anxious,'" said Jana Kinsman, founder of Bike A Bee. "They're just doing what they do. And if anyone were to come and start messing with them or putting water on them then that could've been a disaster."
Kinsman believes the swarm formed after a hive in the downtown area raised a new queen, so the old queen could take off with about one-third of the population and start a new colony--the way bee colonies reproduce naturally. The old queen will then land on an object, like a bike or a tree branch, and the population will surround her until scout bees find a new place to call home.
While the bees cluster in a swarm, bees from the swarm begin to fly out and look for a new place to live -- such as a hollowed-out tree or the side of a house. Once a home is found, the swarm will fly over to their new dwelling, Kinsman said.
Over the hour after the beekeepers arrived, they gathered the bees into the hive so that they could be taken to Bike A Bee's Back of the Yards rooftop location. Once queen was in the hive, the bees slowly channeled into the hive over the next half hour.
Kinsman said she's excited to come across the "free bees," as beekepers would spend about $125 to accquire 7,000 bees. The bees are less valuable, however, because it's late in the season to start a colony and there's only less time for them to build up the size of the colony and produce enough honey this year to live through the winter.
Reynolds, the hotel valet, said the ordeal was especially exciting due to the swarm's unusual location: the Chicago Loop.
"I feel sorry for whoever owned that bike, though," he said with a laugh. "She had to wait, and she can't go no where 'til they get them bees off her bike."
meltagouri@chicagotribune.com
@marwaeltagouri
