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UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (PIX11) — A swarm of 20,000 bees was pulled down from a tree on West 72nd Street Monday afternoon.

The swarm weighed about four pounds and sat on a weak tree branch.

Nearly 20,000 bees were removed from an Upper West Side tree. (PIX11)

“They clustered around the queen to try and save her because she is the matriarch and without her you don’t have a hive,” Detective Anthony Planakis, the resident beekeeper for New York City Police, said.

Planakis removed the bees, placed them into a vented box, and relocated the group to join a regulated hive in Midtown.