The bees were swarming around a yellow work van parked on East 47th Street between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue.
The ordeal started at about 11:30 a.m. and continued through mid-afternoon.
Watch raw video showing the swarm here:
Raw: Bees swarm van in Midtown
Police closed a portion of East 47th Street to vehicular traffic, and people were kept from walking on the south side of the street.
NYPD's beekeeper was called to the scene to remove the bees.
It wasn't immediately clear how many bees were involved or why they were swarming the van.