3,000 bees removed from Dudley Zoo
A 3,000-strong swarm of honey bees sent keepers at Dudley Zoo buzzing into action when they settled on a tree near the camel enclosure.
Staff were surprised to the see new arrivals and called in Sedgley bee keeper Robert Cheswick to help move the insects.
It's believed they had relocated from somewhere near the attraction in Castle Hill.
They colony settled on a branch of the tree, away from any animals, and Mr Cheswick was able to cut it of before transferring the bees to a container to take home to join his hives.
It took two hours to move the bees to safety.
Mr Cheswick said: "It was quite a large swarm, made up of honey bees, which I believe had relocated from somewhere fairly close.
"I snipped the branch off the tree, complete with attached bees and then transferred them to a container before taking them home."
The zoo's head of media and communications, Jill Hitchman said: "Thankfully, it was in a quiet part of the zoo at the end of the day and the bees didn't head towards any animals.
"Staff alerted the local bee keeper who transferred the swarm to a container, enabling him to transport them off site."
The bees have now formed a nucleus colony in Mr Cheswick's hives.
Bees can swarm when an old queen bees leaves the hive and takes around a third of the workers and drones with her.
Just last month shoppers in Stourbridge town centre had a shock when a swarm of bees settled on a bench.
They attached themselves to one of the legs of the bench near the town square's historic clock.
Expert beekeeper Lee Griffin, the treasurer of Hagley and Stourbridge Beekeepers Association, was called in to remove them.
He had to set up a cordon around the bees to stop them getting too close before taking them away to a hive.
As long as swarms are not disturbed, they do not poss a danger to the public.
