A hive of bees has taken residence at the top of a lamppost in the southeast Winnipeg neighbourhood of Sage Creek.
Residents in the area say about ten days ago, they noticed the group of bees flew onto Pintail Crescent and have remained ever since. The sight of the football-sized mass of insects is something people living there have never seen before.
“It happened last week, and it just seemed to spring up in a couple of days,” explained Bjorn Johnson, who lives on the cul-de-sac. “I drove past it one day and the entire thing was full, and [the bees] were just scrambling around and stuff, which is super freaky.”
No one has been stung by the bees yet, but Johnson says parents are keeping their kids from playing on the street as a precaution.
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“Kids meet there, usually about 10 or 12 kids are zipping around on scooters, riding their bikes around or playing road hockey,” Johnson said. “That slammed it to a stop.”
Beekeeper Michael Clark says the behaviour of the bees suggests they’re “swarming” which means the bee population outgrew what the previous hive could support.
“If they’ve run out of room, then they need to find more room,” said Clark. “They’ll take off with the queen to find a new location, which will suit their needs, and she’ll leave a daughter in her place to take over the colony.”
According to Clark, the process of swarming takes a few hours to a couple of days at most, so if the bees have been there as long as they say, the bees have likely started ‘combing’, which makes the process of removing the bees more involved.
“You’d have to get up there in some type of zoom-boom [construction lift] and look at the comb,” Clark explained. “Collect the queen and move the comb into a box right below it [the lamp post], then the bees should follow down to the smell of the pheromones of the queen.”
City officials are aware of the situation in Sage Creek, and told Global News in an email that they’ve contacted a local beekeeper to safely remove the swarm, but noted Manitoba Hydro will need to assist since the bees are located within the housing of the lamp
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