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Swarm of Bees Found on Rooftop in Times Square

 A swarm of bees on a Times Square rooftop near where the ball drops on New Year's Eve.
A swarm of bees on a Times Square rooftop near where the ball drops on New Year's Eve.
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Courtesy of Steph Zaddy

TIMES SQUARE — Midtown is breaking out in hives.

About 30,000 bees found on top of One Times Square were moved to a new home at Bryant Park on Tuesday afternoon.

The bees, which had swarmed near the top of One Times Square, were taken by a trio of beekeepers to their new beehives, overseen by New York City Beekeepers Association (NYCBA) president Andrew Coté.

Coté, who also runs the family-run Andrew's Honey, removed the clusters of bees using a low-suction vacuum after going up to the 17th floor of the building around noon, relying on a harness to keep him from plunging off the side of the building.

Andrew Cote, the president of the New York City Beekeepers Association removes 30,000 bees from a rooftop. (Courtesy of AndrewsHoney.com)

The bees needed to be removed quickly, said Coté, who feared the bees would be overwhelmed after being captured. 

“They need a place to go right away,” Coté said. "There was so many of them in a small container that if we left them there, they would have overheated.”

He added that by introducing the bees to the smaller hive at Bryant Park, it would almost instantly double the population there.

Two beekeepers in Bryant Park put smoke over a beehive to inspect the swarm. (DNAinfo/Tatyana Bellamy-Walker)

Coté said he thought the bees may have flown from a nearby hotel that has a rooftop beehive in search of a new hive.

“They were probably not very well managed,” said Coté. “Like when Lucifer, the most beautiful angel, left Heaven, he took a third of the angels with him, so does the queen, when she swarms from the hive, take a third to half of the bees with her."

Regan Murray, a sales coordinator at the Intercontinental Hotel at Times Square — which has a beehive — said no bees had left the hotel's premises.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the name of Andrew Cote's business. The correct name is Andrew's Honey. It also incorrectly stated the relationship between the beehives and the New York City Beekeepers Association. The NYCBA does not run the beehives in Bryant Park.