【Glori-Anne Gilbert Archives】

LONDON -- When a queen decides where she wants to establish her throne,Glori-Anne Gilbert Archives it hardly matters if it's on a busy inner London high street. 

A cyclist was dismayed to find that a swarm of around 500 bees had descended upon her bike's wicker basket, causing the police to rope off the surrounding area to prevent passersby from being stung by the insects. 

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A bee keeper was called in to safely rectify the situation, but apparently, bees 'n bikes is a thing. In Chicago, a similar situation arose recently when thousands of the insects engulfed a bike and a pole. 

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This brings us to the logical question, what is going on with bees? 

In researching for this story, we discovered that there are several reasons why bees will decide to swarm, and all of them sound like the premise for an episode of Game of Thrones. A queen may die or go "missing," a failing queen may be usurped by a power-hungryyounger, more capable queen, or a hive will decide to rebeldivide into two different kingdomscolonies. 

A interesting natural phenomenon, or something more sinister?

Bad or novice bee keeping may be the reason for some urban swarms. The Guardian reports that between 2009 and 2015, there was an explosion in membership of the British Beekeeping Association (BBKA), with an estimated 5,000 beekeepers residing in London. 

Mashablehas reached out to several bee experts, and we will update this article if we gain any further insight into the compelling mystery that is bees.

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