Beekeeper Susan Littlefield, of North Kingstown, uses cardboard boxes to collect a swarm of bees from the sidewalk in front of the Turk’s Head Building in Providence yesterday. “They’re very docile when they swarm,” Littlefield said of the thousands of bees.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE

The Turk’s Head building was buzzing yesterday as a swarm of thousands of bees stopped traffic and mystified camera-wielding onlookers, before finally dissipating, two hours after they came.

Only one person was stung, a man who brought his camera close to try to get pictures of the bees.

The honeybees were first spotted around noon, as they descended on a yellow National Grid truck by the thousands, onlookers said.

“The truck was covered. He drove away, and they started flying around,” said Iain Thorburn, who came out of the Turk’s Head building to watch the sight.

They then swarmed around the intersection of Weybosset and Westminster streets, circling in a giant black cloud.

Providence Patrolman Tony DaSilva drove by and couldn’t believe what he saw.

“I said, something’s wrong here. They’ve taken over the square,” he said.

The bees soon left the air, and formed a huge, undulating pile on the sidewalk by a fire hydrant, perhaps 7 feet wide when it was at its largest.

DaSilva kept onlookers back as the bee pile ebbed and flowed, slowly shrinking as high winds blew bees off.

“I’m deathly afraid of bees. I can’t believe I’m standing this close,” DaSilva said.

Once it was clear that the bees weren’t stinging passersby, DaSilva turned into unofficial ringmaster for the crowd of onlookers — cracking bee puns as he tried to get police headquarters to send a beekeeper.

“At least they’re all bee-having,” he said to laughs from the crowd, taking pictures with their cellular phone cameras.

The city couldn’t find a beekeeper, because the usual suspects were on vacation, DaSilva was told.

“The one time of the year that we need them — and they’re all on vacation. I bet they’re all at Applebee’s,” he said, to the delight of the crowd.

By then, amateur beekeepers in the audience had decided to take matters into their own hands. Peter Gengler, of Rehoboth, an amateur beekeeper, said they were honeybees massing to protect the queen.

Dan Custer, a Textron employee, looked into the pile, found a bee much larger than all the others, and tossed her out into the air with a screwdriver.

“I flicked her out,” Custer said.

Many bees followed, and the size of the pile soon shrank dramatically.

But enough bees remained to entice Troy Chace, of Providence, to come close and get pictures — when he was stung on the thumb.

“Everybody else was doing it, so I said why not?” he said.

The smaller pile of bees remained until two women from the Providence Animal Rescue League, Anna Vinacco and Susan Littlefield, drove up, cardboard boxes in hand, and tried to trap as many bees as they could inside the boxes.

“They’re very docile when they swarm,” said Littlefield, who operates a bee farm. She herded as many bees as she could into the boxes, threw them into the back of her Subaru and drove off toward her home in Exeter, unstung.

The remaining bees melted away by 2:15 p.m., as did the crowd.

Everett Zurlinden, president of the Rhode Island Beekeepers Association, said that this is the reproductive season for honeybees, and this was likely a strong colony looking to found a second outpost. A new queen had probably been born recently, and the old queen and a swarm of forager bees had likely loaded up with honey and started looking for a second home. The swarm season typically runs from Mother’s Day until July 4.

The yellow National Grid truck had probably seemed attractive, he said.

“They normally land about 15 feet in the air. Their original landing spot was on that truck. They like yellow for some reason,” Zurlinden said.

“I think what happened was they were completely disoriented. The truck took off, and the queen took flight, and they followed the queen,” he said.

The half-inch long bees can live in colonies ranging in size from 20,000 to 80,000, Zurlinden said. Those that swarm can be a much smaller number though, in the 3,000- to 5,000-bee range. Honeybees are not a typically aggressive type of bee in general, but swarming bees in particular do not normally sting, because they are so loaded with honey that stinging becomes difficult. More information is available at ribeekeeper.org.

dbarbari@projo.com