The original bicycling queen

Bermuda has been enjoying an over-egged story about “one to two million bees” on a bike causing havoc in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Hamilton looked like the set of a B-grade horror movie yesterday as a massive swarm of bees forced the closure of a portion of Queen Street.
As many as a million bees swarmed around a Smatt’s livery cycle parked on the side of the street around noon, forcing residents to take shelter in stores to bar themselves from the onslaught.

Local beekeeper Dejuan Seymour came to the rescue with a bucket:

“The Queen bee went on the bike and the rest followed,” Mr. Seymour said. “That’s why I shook the majority into the bucket.”

But excess bees were still clinging onto the livery cycle. Mr. Seymour tried to remove the stubborn bees with a broom without success. Ten minutes later the beekeeper and his assistant simply picked up the entire bee-covered bike and put it in the back of his van. The bees and the beekeeper drove away up Queen Street.

Non-beekeeping readers might like to know that a swarm is unlikely to have more than a small number of tens of thousands of bees.