Thousands of bees swarming around World Trade Center get a new home in apple orchard

The New York City Police Department decided Manhattan wasn’t the place for thousands of honeybees.

The department’s beekeeper unit removed 8,000 honeybees from the side of the World Trade Center on May 28 and relocated them to an apple orchard, according to the New York City Police Department.

The NYPD beekeeping unit was created in 2010 when the city legalized beekeeping, New York City police beekeeper Darren Mays said on an episode of the Beekeeping Today podcast last month. Mays is a former beat cop who did beekeeping as a hobby. He became a New York City police beekeeper in 2014.

“After 2010, we saw a big fluctuation of swarms happening in New York City,” he said on the podcast.

Bee swarming season lasts from mid-May through mid-July in New York, according to Cornell University.

The beekeeping unit is tasked with removing swarms of bees from various locations across the city. Beekeeping officers told The Today Show in 2019 that they’re called about four to five times a week during swarm season.

This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Thousands of bees swarming around World Trade Center get a new home in apple orchard."