A family home was swarmed by a ' big black cloud' of 50,000 bees in a 'real life nightmare'.

Simon Pollitt, 32, was helping his 66-year-old father Harry and Harry's partner Angela sort out their allotment when the bizarre scenes unfolded.

A neighbour knocked the door of their home in Swavesey, Cambirdgeshire, to warn them of thousands of bees gathering over their roof.

Simon said: "We went outside, and there was a big black cloud above us.

"My dad's partner is allergic to bee stings, so having all of them so close was frightening for her."

A bee-keeper said he had never seen such a huge swarm

Not knowing what to do, the professional glazier went onto Facebook on the local village page and posted a video of the insects to see if anyone would help, reports Cambridgeshire Live .

He was told to let the bees settle. After doing so for 30 minutes he found, however, that the bees had started forming a big ball atop a large fern tree.

Mr Pollitt contacted a local bee-keeper, Adam Neville, who removed the bees by cutting down the branch on which they had settled and depositing them into a box which he took away.

"He said it was the biggest swarm he'd seen this year," Simon said. "Easily 50,000 to 60,000 honey bees."

Mr Pollitt shared the video with  Cambridgeshire Live , who said: "The video doesn't do it justice. The swarm was massive."

Simon described the ordeal as "frightening"

Swarming is when a new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees.

They mainly happen in spring, but occasional swarms can happen - and they can contain tens of thousands of bees.

Bees form new colonies as a way of reproducing, where a scout bee from the original colony departs to find a new nest site before finding a suitable cavity in which to construct the swarm's home.

After reporting back to the original colony, the swarm will leave its nest to form a new one.