THE BEES were smoked out of Parliament yesterday.
Not the members of the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (known as the Bees) but a swarm of the insects that took over a part of the West Wing of Parliament Buildings.
And after the hive had been removed, many pedestrians got a taste of honey.
Commercial bee-keeper and expert on the insect, Rudi Gibson, was called in to remove the hive after people reported seeing a swarm enter part of the building on Tuesday afternoon.
Kenrick Greenidge, of the Ministry of Public Transport, who helped with the effort to remove the bees yesterday, was there when the bees arrived on Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a whole black cloud, like they just come home from work and all of them start to force to get in and they were spinning in a big black cloud before all of them actually settled to go inside,” he recalled.
“It was so amazing to see a whole cloud come round the corner by Royal Bank and spinning in a circle and then they just settle in a line and gone in behind one another,” he added.
The bee-keeping team of Rudi Gibson, Glenn Gibson and Edson Warner, who had to be hoisted to the spot, were first forced to drill their way through the coral stone blocks of the building as dozens of the smoke-dazed insects flew around their heads.
On the ground, pedestrians paused and gazed in amazement before hurrying on as the angry insects buzzed around their heads. One or two suffered stings and hastily left the area.
But within minutes, oohs and aahs were heard as Gibson removed the first piece of honeycomb, covered with the insects.As he pulled bigger pieces from the hole, people on the ground clamoured for a taste of the natural substance.
“They were living in there for years,” one woman pronounced, as another exclaimed that the honey was “dropping out”.
Above, Bee expert Rudi Gibson examining a bee-covered piece of honeycomb removed from inside a wall at Parliament Buildings as the smoke-dazed insects fly around his head. (Picture by Heather-Lynn Evanson)
