Thousands of bees swarm over car in Northwich

The swarm covered an unsuspecting driver's car in Northwich

Tens of thousands of bees had to be removed from a car they had swarmed over in the middle of a Cheshire town.

The bees covered the outside and inside of the vehicle in Northwich on Monday.

Beekeeping expert Chris Bowyer was called to move the insects into a temporary hive before he took the colony back to his home in Middlewich.

"There were about 25-30,000 bees, but that is only about 50% of a hive," he explained.

Mr Bowyer, owner of Paul Jones Pest Control, has 75 hives at home and said the swarm would have formed because a "hive will have become too cramped and the queen will send scout bees out to look for a new nest".

"They will have settled on the car and then more and more bees started to join them.

"But once it goes from a swarm into somewhere like a chimney or roof of a building, it becomes a much bigger job to remove them," he said.

'Swarm mode'

A former builder, Mr Bowyer said he often has to use those skills to remove brickwork from the insides of buildings when nests form.

His advice to anyone seeing such a swarm is to stay well away - but he added it was not when bees are at their most dangerous.

"In a swarm mode is actually the calmest you will find bees," he said.

"They have left the nest full of honey and just want to settle somewhere and look after their queen.

"None of us feel like a fight just after eating a roast dinner, do we?"