EASTPORT – It looked like the trees were full of smoke, Officer Frank Gardner of the Eastport Police Department said Sunday after several swarms of bees flew into the city a day earlier.

Around 10 a.m. Saturday, an unidentified caller notified the Washington County Regional Communication Center in Machias that he had spotted a swarm of bees off Clark Street near the city’s cemetery.

Gardner and Police Chief Matt Vinson went to the area. “The biggest one you could see was over Harris Point and it almost looked like a big dark cloud in the sky,” Vinson said.

Gardner said there were five different swarms. None landed. “They were all in the same general area, but they all were within a half-mile of each other,” the chief added.

Although the officers stood underneath the swarm, the bees never once tried to land or sting them. “They stayed right up at the treetop level,” Gardner said.

The swarm lasted for several hours. On Sunday, Gardner said, he checked around where he had seen the swarms on Saturday, but couldn’t find anything.

Beekeeper Lloyd Brace of Waldoboro said Sunday it was unusual for bees to swarm this time of year, but it was possible if the hive had been disrupted. “A typical disruption in your neck of the woods could be a bear,” he said. “And bears are very persistent.” The bees may have been looking for a new home.

If a bear attacked a bee site, Brace said, it would not stop at one hive. “And the stinging won’t stop him,” he added. Although most people believe bears are going after the honey, he added, in fact they are after the brood “because they are protein,” he said. “Not that they don’t like honey a lot, but lots of examinations have shown that the larvae – the brood – is always taken.”