The “Bee” train roared down Lexington Avenue yesterday, sending startled Upper East Siders scurrying for cover.
Some 8,000 to 10,000 honeybees had surreptitiously moved into the neighborhood sometime in the past month and managed to build a giant hive in a tree between 80th and 81st streets without anyone noticing.
The queen decided to bust out at around 4 p.m., and flew south for a half-block before returning home.
She was followed dutifully on her outing by all of her subjects.
“It was a three foot column of bees,” said Doug Becker, 40.
Police Officer Anthony Planakis, the NYPD’s resident beekeeper for 30 years, said it was “one of the biggest swarms I’ve ever seen.”
He took all the bees into custody as a crowd of onlookers applauded, and said he’d bring them “to a farm in Connecticut to pollinate.”
This bees got loose only days after a swarm of amateur beekeepers buzzed around City Hall in support of a bill to legalize their hobby.