Bee swarm on residential fence captured

BELLE VERNON, Pa., June 4 (UPI) -- Police in Pennsylvania said a beekeeper successfully relocated a 4-inch-thick swarm of 7,000 to 8,000 bees from a resident's fence.

Southwest Regional police Chief John Hartman said he was awed by the sight of the bees when he and other police arrived at the scene of the swarm outside Bernadette Rodger's Belle Vernon home, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Thursday.

"It looked like a rug hanging over the fence," Hartman said. "But you could see that the bees were moving around. It was unlike anything I've ever seen."

Hartman said beekeeper Sonny Markish of Brownsville, Pa., was called to capture the bees. The expert, who said the bees were part of a colony that splintered and were seeking a new home, sprayed the insects with sugar water and brushed them into a pair of ventilated buckets.

"It was lucky they were on the fence and easy to capture," Markish said. "Mission accomplished."