Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

These images show a massive swarm of 50,000 bees that made a traffic light their new home being given the brush off.

The bees, which completely covered the pedestrian traffic light, were spotted on Place d’Espagne, at the corner of Rue Emile-Guichenne in Pau, a city in south-western France.

According to French newspaper Sud-Ouest, Andre Lavignotte, a beekeeper for 50 years in Pau, was called to urgently deal with the situation.

After an hour and a half, the beekeeper, wearing protective gear to avoid being stung, recovered the queen and the 50,000 bees from the colony and brought them back to his property. If the queen is secured, the other bees usually follow her.

The images show that to remove the swarm, Andre Lavignotte placed a mobile hive on the pedestrian traffic light. He pushed the queen bee to migrate to the mobile hive so that the rest of the swarm could follow her.

This kind of phenomenon is said to be common in cities. It is unclear why the bees decided to build a hive on the traffic light.

Andre Lavignotte says: “It happens very often in cities. Especially in condemned chimneys”.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.