Bees Seized In Queens: Millions Of Insects Confiscated From NY Man's Driveway

Bees Seized In Queens (Photo: ABC News)

Millions of bees were seized from a Queens man's driveway on Wednesday night.

Members of the New York City Beekeepers Association confiscated 45 hives containing about 3 million bees from the home of Yi Gin Chen, a restaurant owner who had been a beekeeper in China. The bees were kept in a 20 by 20 space.

"I’ve never seen anything as reckless as this is New York City," Andrew Coté, founder of the New York City Beekeepers Association, told The Epoch Times. "Hives three feet from the egress of neighborhood buildings, on the ground, in shambles, diseased [bees], completely stripped of all of their honey, not just their excess honey, [and] unregistered. I hardly have the stomach for it."

Police say Chen's collection has grown out of control and is in violation of the urban beekeeping rules.

Beekeeping is legal in New York City but beekeepers are required to register with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and to adhere to appropriate practices. Failure to do so is punishable by a fine of $2,000 per hive.

The 58-year-old insisted that he didn’t know of any regulations and that beekeeping is only his hobby.