A beekeeper whose mouth swelled so badly he could not even drink has blamed his wife after she cycled past his hives on a rattling old three-wheel bike.

The man, identified only as Mr Tian, said he owned about a dozen beehives and had gone to where they were based to check on them when the accident happened.

He said that when his wife came to join him, she turned up on the old tricycle and it startled the bees. He did not reveal whether she had knocked one of the hives or whether it was the noise, but after large numbers flew out of the hive, one of them stung him on the mouth.

Mr Tian said that his mouth was swollen like this within 20 minutes of being stung, with his upper lip and chin most affected.

He said that when he looked in the mirror he was horrified to see that he had a rubbery lip that looked rather like a sausage and his eyes were also swollen so much that they were almost closed.

He was only able to eat soup after that and even that only in small amounts, as it spilled out of his mouth if he tried to drink too much.

He said: “I had to tip my head back so that it did not dribble back out.”

His wife, who was not named, was apologetic about the incident and said she had been paying attention when she turned up at the hives, and was sorry for what had happened to her husband.

The video of his swollen face attracted a lot of comments on social media including one user named “Everything Is Possible” who said: “That bee must have really disliked you, your face is so swollen it almost looks like a filter.”

Another user called ‘Hi’ added: “Have you kissed a cobra?”