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As It Happens

As it Happened: The Archive Edition - The Birds + Bees Episode

On the The Birds and Bees Episode of As it Happened:The Archive Edition, we'll hear from NYPD Officer Anthony Planakis. For more than 35 years he was in charge of handling New York City's problems with roving gangs of ... bees. If there was a swarm anywhere in the city, "Tony Bees" was on it.
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NYPD beekeeper Anthony Planakis tries to remove bees from a building in New York City in 2008. Officer Planakis, aka Tony Bees, retired from the force in 2014. (New York Daily News Archive/Contributor/Getty )
As It Happens27:29As it Happened: The Archive Edition - The Birds + Bees Episode

Officially, he was known as Officer Anthony Planakis. But on the streets of New York City, he was better known as Tony Bees.    

For more than 35 years, Officer Planakis was the only person on the city's police force who could deal with a particular kind of call - the honey bee emergencies. As he told As it Happens host Carol Off in 2012, he wouldn't have had it any other way. And in retirement, he continues to keep bee hives at his home.

"I just love working with these ladies, I really do," says Planakis.

He had no fear taking on bees and swarms, no matter the method.

"There were a couple of swarms that I had no choice, I had to find the queen and I used the queen to attract the bees into a swarm box. Quite a few times I used my hands. And a couple of times I used a vacuum," he says.

Planakis explains that he has a special bee vacuum that sucks in the bees without harming them. He then puts the box of bees in the front seat of his truck with the air conditioner on, hoping that the bees will "cluster up tight" in the colder temperature. Despite his efforts, some bees will still fly around, loose in the truck.

When asked if the bees flying in his truck are distracting, Planakis offers a blunt reply: "No, not at all. Again, I'm doing this for 35 years."

Planakis loves the bees and describes them as the perfect society.

"Everybody knows what they have to do, everybody knows what their job is. There's only one leader," he says. "And they know that in the 38-day span during the summertime, during the season, they have to do what they can to make sure that hive is going to go on."

He laughs when asked if he wishes people behaved the same way as bees.

"It would be a perfect world," says Planakis. "I'm telling you, I love them."

You can hear our interview with Anthony Planakis, as well as these stories on The Birds + Bees Episode:

A cockatoo has a maternal reaction to a bowl of chocolate Easter eggs.

Harry the Hawk retires from public performances after stealing a man's toupee.

A spelling bee competition runs out of words.

Gertie the chicken becomes Bertie the rooster after a natural sex change.

A Tennessee beekeeper survives being swarmed by 1,000 bees.

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