Bees swarm a backhoe on a construction site at Toronto’s Union Station // Credit: Toronto Star/City of TorontoConstruction workers at Toronto’s Union Station experienced an odd disruption Wednesday when a colony of urban honey bees swarmed their jobsite, according to The Toronto Star.
Thousands of bees swarmed the site, where a revitalization of the century-old Toronto subway station is underway, before settling on a backhoe.
Toronto Transit Commission spokesman Brad Ross said because of a well-trained beekeeper, the disruption was brief. “I guess, [the beekeeper] whispered sweet nothings to the bees and they dispersed,” Ross told the Star.
The bees are believed to have come from one of the hives in a summer colony located atop the Fairmont Royal York hotel, also in Toronto. The colony is said to have 350,000 bees. The swarm of bees that invaded the site likely left the colony because the queen bee is looking for a new home.
Because honeybees are “quite docile,” no one on the site was stung. However, they were probably more than a little alarmed.
