--- title: Bee Swarm Shuts Down Traffic in London description: Traffic was stalled in London after a swarm of bees descended on a traffic light and created quite a buzz during rush hour. canonical: https://time.com/4782809/bee-swarm-london/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-17T19:36:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:43.500Z og:title: A Swarming Bee Invasion Shut Down a This Street og:description: They caused quite a buzz og:url: https://time.com/4782809/bee-swarm-london/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt809f4cbb2c8bb258/6988cdb5656a3f23b5bd0094/bee-swarm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3550 og:image:height: 1997 og:image:alt: Spring training: Milwaukee vs. Kansas City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Swarming Bee Invasion Shut Down a This Street twitter:description: They caused quite a buzz twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt809f4cbb2c8bb258/6988cdb5656a3f23b5bd0094/bee-swarm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # An Intense Swarming Bee Invasion Shut Down a Traffic on This Street > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner May 17, 2017 7:36 PM UTC  A swarm of bees gathers above the press box during during a spring training game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals in Surprise, Ariz., on Saturday, March 25, 2017\. (John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/TNS via Getty Images) A swarm of bees gathers above the press box during during a spring training game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals in Surprise, Ariz., on Saturday, March 25, 2017\. (John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/TNS via Getty Images) Kansas City Star—TNS via Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner May 17, 2017 7:36 PM UTC During rush hour in London on Tuesday, a [swarm of bees](http://time.com/4509525/why-we-should-protect-the-bees/) descended on a pedestrian crossing and stalled traffic for at least an hour. The source of the kerfuffle remains unclear; some speculate the thousands of humming honey-makers may have journeyed en masse from the nearby Greenwich Park, [as Metro UK reports](http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/17/enormous-swarm-of-bees-brings-rush-hour-traffic-to-a-standstill-in-london-6642699/). Once unleashed onto the cobblestoned streets of north London’s Greenwich Church Street, they buzzed their way through the skies and ultimately congregated on traffic lights and other surfaces, causing some traffic-related chaos. The scene was rather intense; [in tweets](https://twitter.com/BeadoirLondon/status/864510890732908544), passersby hint at the incessant humming and insects flying everywhere. Eventually, a local beekeeper came to the rescue, managing to extract the buzzing creatures from their impromptu block party with a portable bee hive and return the street to normal. Luckily, he shared with local news that nobody had been stung as bees are “very benign” [while swarming](http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/17/enormous-swarm-of-bees-brings-rush-hour-traffic-to-a-standstill-in-london-6642699/). A traffic Twitter account followed up, saying the bees had been “safely relocated,” thankfully. (Some bees are currently on [some endangered species lists](http://time.com/4518064/hawaii-bees-added-endangered-species-list/).) One question remains: were Beyoncé and her BeyHive behind this? And if not, what sorcery was this? > [](https://twitter.com/TfLTrafficNews/status/864517638285918208) > [](https://twitter.com/BeadoirLondon/status/864513271679864832) > [](https://twitter.com/eboronat/status/864499210875437056) > [](https://twitter.com/TfLTrafficNews/status/864566807771979777) > [](https://twitter.com/bigpicguy/status/864562621915312129) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4782809/bee-swarm-london/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4782809/bee-swarm-london/"},"headline":"An Intense Swarming Bee Invasion Shut Down a Traffic on This Street","datePublished":"2017-05-17T19:36:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:43.500Z","description":"Traffic was stalled in London after a swarm of bees descended on a traffic light and created quite a buzz during rush hour.","url":"https://time.com/4782809/bee-swarm-london/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Bees","viral","london","weird"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt809f4cbb2c8bb258/6988cdb5656a3f23b5bd0094/bee-swarm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt809f4cbb2c8bb258/6988cdb5656a3f23b5bd0094/bee-swarm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Spring training: Milwaukee vs. Kansas City","caption":"Spring training: Milwaukee vs. Kansas City","creditText":"Kansas City Star—TNS via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4782809/bee-swarm-london/","name":"An Intense Swarming Bee Invasion Shut Down a Traffic on This Street"}}]}] ```