News

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach was all abuzz last month when part of a beehive on State Road A1A fell to the ground and hundreds of bees began chasing pedestrians strolling on the town’s walking path.
    More than four hours after a walker flagged down a passing police officer to alert him to the problem, a beekeeper had removed not one but two hives of Africanized honeybees hidden in a tree on the west side of the road.
    In all, town officials say, there were at least a half million bees in the two hives, with one hive weighing in at about 250 pounds and the other weighing about 300 pounds.
    “It was ‘un-bee-lievable,’ pun intended,” said Lt. Eric Lundberg of the Highland Beach Police Department. “Based on the size of both hives, we’re very lucky no one was seriously hurt.”
    Police closed off a portion of State Road A1A in the 3000 block to pedestrians and bicyclists for about four hours as a beekeeper removed the hives. A portion of A1A was also closed to traffic for a short time.
    Lundberg said two people were stung while the hives were being taken down, including a police officer who was helping to cordon off the area and a jogger who was running on the west side of A1A.
    The hives were estimated to be 5 feet and 6 feet in diameter respectively, and were taken away and destroyed by the beekeeper.