A typical Thursday afternoon in Downtown Decatur took an unexpected turn when a swarm of honey bees congregated on a parking sign along Main Street.

The situation was handled by Ricky Wright, who, equipped with a vacuum, jeans, a short-sleeve shirt, and a ball cap, carefully collected the bees. His wife, Cheryl Wright, assisted, managing the bee containers and jars of honey in their SUV.

cheryl Wright estimated the swarm to contain approximately 3,000-4,000 bees.

“This is pretty small compared to some other jobs we’ve had,” Cheryl Wright said.

The cluster of bees was significant enough to obscure about half of the 2-Hour Parking sign on the 100 block of E. Main Street.

A swarm of honey bees huddled up on parking sign during their migration from their previous hive. COURTESY | CITY OF DECATUR

The swarm, though startling, posed no immediate threat, as the bees were simply surrounding their queen during a temporary rest.

Swarming is a natural part of a bee colony’s life cycle, ofen occurring when a hive becomes too crowded or when the colony decides to replace its queen. According to beeswarmed.org, the old queen leaves the hive with a large group of worker bees to find a new home. They often pause in a temporary location while scout bees search for a suitable new hive.

Decatur City Hall received numerous calls about the swarm around 1 p.m. city Manager Nate Mara mentioned that a city staff member knew some local beekeepers.

The Wrights will relocate the honey bees to their Warrior Bee apiary in Weatherford after completing a few other relocation jobs.

“It’s bee season,” cheryl Wright said, noting they had seven removals scheduled for the day.