{"id":611532,"date":"2026-09-25T16:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611532\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T16:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:34:11","slug":"new-queen-on-queen-st-pedestrians-kept-away-as-bees-swarm-on-footpath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611532\/","title":{"rendered":"New queen on Queen St: Pedestrians kept away as bees swarm on footpath"},"content":{"rendered":"
A swarm of bees prompted pedestrians to steer clear of part of central Auckland\u2019s Queen St this afternoon. Photo \/ Haggarty<\/p>\n
One witness told the Herald a security guard asked people to cross to the opposite footpath.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Well, why? I can\u2019t see anything dangerous\u2019,\u201d the witness said.<\/p>\n
After crossing the road, the witness said there were \u201cbees everywhere\u201d and described the scene as looking as though the insects were attempting to establish a hive.<\/p>\n
The witness said the swarming was \u201cquite exciting, to be honest\u201d.<\/p>\n
Auckland Beekeepers Club swarm coordinator Bryan Lang said spring, from September to December, was the peak swarming season in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Lang said company Bees Up Top maintained rooftop hives on several CBD buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn existing hive gets too full and there\u2019s no room for the queen to lay,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n
The queen then leaves with a large portion of the colony to search for a new home, while a new queen takes over the original hive, he said.<\/p>\n
Despite their intimidating appearance, Lang said swarms are generally not dangerous because the bees are focused on relocation rather than defending a hive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just solely concerned with finding that new home,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way they would sting you is if you put your hand on one or stood on one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lang said a club member was on the way to collect the swarm and relocate it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll scoop them into a box. And as long as the queen has gone into that box, the rest of the bees will follow in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A swarm of bees prompted pedestrians to steer clear of part of central Auckland\u2019s Queen St this afternoon.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11730,806,3952,4995,20006,1853,1444,43972,71,20558,149347,3025,117,111,43,139,69,90,5202,19551,3366,267893,11420,11584,39537,1961,102],"class_list":["post-611532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-afternoon","tag-as","tag-aucklands","tag-away","tag-bees","tag-central","tag-famous","tag-footpath","tag-from","tag-kept","tag-monarch","tag-most","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-part","tag-pedestrians","tag-queen","tag-redirecting","tag-st","tag-stretch","tag-swarm","tag-this","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}