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40K Bees Swarm Another Spot In Chicago, This Time In Fulton Market (VIDEO)

By Stephanie Lulay | June 27, 2016 11:53am | Updated on July 1, 2016 10:56am
 About 40,000 bees were rescued from a tree outside of The Aviary in Fulton Market Friday and were relocated to a bee start up in North Lawndale.
About 40,000 bees were rescued from a tree outside of The Aviary in Fulton Market Friday and were relocated to a bee start up in North Lawndale.
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YouTube/Moshe Tammsot

FULTON MARKET — How do you remove tens of thousands of bees swarming a tree on a busy Fulton Market street? 

Turns out you shake them out — very, very carefully. 

Moshe Tamssot, a Block X condo resident and amateur beekeeper, and Brian Fitzpatrick, a partner in Fulton Market ticketing company Tock, led the charge to rescue an estimated 40,000 honey bees from a tree located outside of The Aviary — the trendy bar named after the bird enclosure — on Friday. The bee relocation — from Fulton Market to North Lawndale — was captured on video. 

Fitzpatrick called Tamssot Friday afternoon to tell him about the bee swarm outside The Aviary, 955 W. Fulton Market. News of the West Loop bee swarm spread fast, and Jana Kinsman, the Bike a Bee founder who scooped bees off a pole and bike in the Loop earlier this month, tweeted that the bees could hang around for a few days or leave at any moment. 

Tamssot soon called his friend Naaman Gambill of Westside Bee Boyz, a North Lawndale start up that manages their own apiary — a home for bees — and other hives across the city. The pair rounded up the necessary equipment and ladders, but they still needed a truck to transport the bees. 

Across the street, businessman Jason Kim, whose family runs a food distribution company on Fulton Market, offered to help, donating funds to rent a Penske truck, Tamssot said. 

Gambill then spent Friday afternoon carefully shaking the estimated 40,000 bees from the tree's limb into a bucket, before scooping them into a box. They were then relocated to the North Lawndale apiary. 

Tamssot, founder of MakeItFor.Us who last year worked to save the Museum of Holography's galleries of wonder, said that although a swarm can look scary, bees are mostly docile when swarming. Swarming is typically triggered by overcrowding in the hive, and is a natural reproductive behavior for bees, he said. 

"They have nothing to fight for [like honey] and won't sting, unless you accidentally squeeze them, or try to hurt them," he said. "So please, if you see a swarm ... don't freak out. Just call a beekeeper." 

Gambill was stung twice during the rescue mission, and Tamssot, who is slightly allergic to bee stings, was stung on the palm of his hand, resulting in swelling. 

"It's not fun, but a few days of discomfort is well worth the survival of the planet," Tamssot said. 

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