City centre bar forced to close after huge swarm of bees take over
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A busy bar has been forced to close down after a swarm of bees moved in outside and started to nest.
The swarm of insects pitched up out the front of 63rd+1st cocktail bar in Glasgow city centre, meaning that staff had to leave via the emergency exit so that they didn’t get stung by the territorial flying insects.
After settling on a railing outside, you can now see that the bees have taken over a wheelie bin for themselves.
That was good news, because it meant that while the bar was forced to close for one evening, shutting for just over a day, they were eventually able to reopen on Monday.
That’s after some brave members of staff wheeled the bin away from the entrance to the bar and stuck it away somewhere safe and distant from the public.
Still, it’s a pretty interesting addition to your ‘my f***ing day at work’ story, isn’t it?
Explaining how it all went down, duty manager Petya Petrova told BBC News: "Hundreds of them swarmed outside the entire front of the building.
"I have no idea what happened, they just arrived randomly and settled onto the railing in about 10 minutes.
"We ended up having to close because it's obviously a safety risk, with it being so close to the entrance.
"We put up a sign to explain we had to close because of the bee colony on the terrace.
"But we still saw some people going up close to them and trying to touch the bees, which probably isn't a good idea."
After the manager stuck a bin near to the bees, they eventually started to move into that.
Petrova continued: "Apparently they send scouts over to check out a new place to nest,
"And then they all moved over, which meant we were able to move the bin away from the entrance and reopen for dinner on Monday night."
It’s been a struggle for the bar to get someone to help them with the bees, as the council apparently wouldn’t do anything about it.
In the end, some beekeepers were scheduled to come and take them today.
Petya said: "The council said they don't deal with bees.
"And we phoned a pest control company and they arrived and took one look at the bees and said they couldn't help.
"We spoke to some beekeepers who couldn't send anyone immediately and said we needed to wait 24 to 48 hours in case it was just a swarm that would move on, and not a nest.
"I've got used to them while they've been there.
"I'm a lot less scared of bees now.
“It's mental though, I've never seen anything like it."
