Swarm of bees lands at hospital

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – For a couple of hours, a hospital here had several thousand unwanted visitors.

A swarm of bees took over a crabapple tree near the northeast entrance of the St. Luke’s Magic Valley Regional Medical Center on Wednesday for about two hours.

“There was quite a bit of alarm about it,” hospital groundskeeper Sam Hutchins told the Times-News. “We thought about spraying them but decided not to because we could have excited them.”

The bees massed in the tree in a swarm about 10 inches thick and 3 feet long. The area was roped off to keep people away.

The bees eventually left, heading east in a cloud. Hutchins said he followed the swarm for about a block before they disappeared.

Ding Johnson, head of the plant, soil and entomological services department at the University of Idaho, said that’s normal behavior for honey bees.

He said the original colony likely grew large and split in two groups, with the queen taking some of the worker bees with her to find a new home.

For whatever reason, he said, the bees decided they didn’t like the tree, or perhaps a worker bee found a better spot and signaled that to the rest of the swarm.

“It was the most wild thing,” said hospital spokeswoman Jodie Tremblay. “It was unbelievable.”