Meet the new NYPD beekeeper who has ladies buzzing
He’s getting swarmed by the honeys.
NYPD’s handsome new beekeeper caused a buzz on social media Thursday — with many women wondering if he’s free for a date — after footage of him removing a massive hive of honeybees near Times Square went viral.
Det. Robert Travis, 39, told The Post he’s single and lives alone with his pooch upstate, as gals posted comments such as “Bee still my beating heart, Det Travis” and “cutie!” on Instagram and Twitter.
“I just got me and my dog,” Travis said of his marital status, in an interview outside One Police Plaza in Manhattan on Thursday.
Travis — who removed an un-bee-leiveable 10,000 honeybees from a light pole on West 47th St. and 6th Ave. on Tuesday, the first day of his new job — said the feat was easier than expected because the critters are calmer at night.
“By the time I got there it was pushing the evening hours and they were docile,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t wear the full suit.”
Travis, who recently became the department’s lead beekeeper, gently sucked up the insects with a special vacuum and will relocate them to a farm upstate, he said.
“I gauged how many bees were there, how active they were,” he said. “We decided we needed to use the bucket truck. So we had the truck respond, and I got all my gear ready and went up there — just nice and calm and collected — I vacuumed them all up very lightly,” he said.
While working with bees in the urban jungle, he said he’s been stung by almost every type of insect there is.
“The yellow jackets, they like to sting me more than the honey bees,” he said. “You get stung enough times you know what’s coming.”
He added, “Honey bees, I probably have a few hundred stings in my life. But those are more like mosquito bites compared to, to other winged friends, like yellow jackets and bald faced hornets, those are a little different.”
Travis, who has been with the NYPD for 11 years, took the lead bee job after Officer Darren Mays when retired recently. He also worked for five years with the elite Emergency Services Unit in the Bronx, which sometimes rescues animals.
Off the job, he keeps two trays of bees — or about 40,000 total — upstate for his personal enjoyment.
“I’m fascinated by them, just the way they work,” he said. “They can all coordinate together to form one big task.”
