Prof. Nigel Raine appeared in an Aug. 29 CBC News story talking about why bees swarm after thousands of the insects crowded atop a hot dog stand umbrella in Times Square on Tuesday.
A professor in the School of Environmental Sciences, Raine explained that bees often leave their hives with a queen due to overcrowding. They look for an interim place to gather to figure out where they will move next, he said. In this case, the bees settled on the umbrella.
He also discussed warning signs for swarming, and said beekeepers will typically divide colonies when bees start to produce more queens and the hives become overcrowded.
Holder of the Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation at U of G, Raine studies pollination conservation and ecology.