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I am a man of integrity and honesty and therefore I have to admit I am writing this piece with a glass of rose (yes, I know, not very beekeeping) to my right and a left over piece of cold pizza (with a bite taken out from a cheeky breakfast bite this morning) to my left. These are the leftovers from last nights World Cup match between England and the US, a rather disappointing result I have to say. Therefore I thought I would write this watching Australia beat Germany; sadly this is not the case with Australia 4-0 down and with only 10 men!

Anyway, what a momentous day. I have dreamt about this day for a while now and especially since I received the bees two weeks ago. You are meant to leave the bees for a bit to start building the colony and just to keep feeding them to give them a helping hand. After all, they have to build a new home and get the queen laying new eggs so she can keep the colony moving forward. Therefore I have done what I am told – there is a first for everything – and today was the day that I was going to have a look inside.

Now, obviously I wanted to film the event but decided early on that asking Jo to pop up to the hive would not be a good idea. A wife, slightly spooked by bees and with no bee suit on probably wouldn’t be a very good idea! I have to say, having now completed the inspection (and feeling quite relived and having the endorphins flowing around – though that might be the rose – I am pretty pleased that I took this decision). So a friend from the beekeeping association stepped in and agreed to help out and film for me and generally hold my hand through the experience – absolutely needed I have to say.

Its amazing, there are not many things that scare me, especially when I need to do them on my own. I have grown up with the confidence to give everything a go but there are two things that have never made sense to me. Firstly horses. I am particularly scared of horses. As a child one decided to eat a huge clump of my hair and I have never felt the same about them ever since. I cannot understand why anyone, while having to walk around them has to maintain contact with them so that “they know you are there”! this entails running your hand over their bottom. Hang on a minute. Firstly why would I want to get too close to a horses rear end and secondly, and perhaps most importantly, why do I want to let them know that I am right there. Horses can seriously kick and they always kick when you are standing right behind them. I know. I will just let them know that I am in prime kicking position! Anyway, I have never liked horses and I have never liked bees. Here I was about to open up a hive, essentially all by myself and I was about to do this live on film. That made as much sense as touching a horses rear end as I walked around it.

Anyway, feeling nervous I opened the hive, following all the correct procedures of smoking in all the right places. I have to say, the first thing that struck me was the sound. There was this amazing buzzing sound coming from the hive. Yes, I know, of course there would be buzzing but this was really BUZZING. Bearing in mind I have been using the runt hive at our association this sound was being made because I was dealing with my own hive with a lot of bees inside, many more than I was used to. The sound was different and I also will say that it was up an octave or two based on what I am usually dealing with. This indicated that they weren’t perhaps as placid as my usual bees. This continued throughout the inspection I have to say. They weren’t exactly a relaxed lot but then again I cannot say that they were overly angry either.

I will not describe all of the inspection as it would go on for a bit but suffice to say it was all looking good. I reckon to have about seven frames with which bees are on and have drawn out comb. I am really pleased with this because I also saw sealed brood and also evidence of eggs and larvae. Therefore I know the queen is laying. Sadly I saw neither Cleopatra or Nefertiti and so the mystery continues on which queen I actually have (see previous posts on this subject!) I am not overly concerned however.

I do have to say it is incredible to see an experienced beekeeper look at a frame. There I was studying each one for several minutes trying to look for this queen whereas an expert would literally spend a second looking and go “There you go; Queenie”! Unbelievable.

Aside from signs of a laying queen I also saw lots of sealed stores which is great to see and looking at the comb that has been generated is just magical. Understanding that I had put simply wax strips into the box and suddenly they had made the most beautiful honey comb is quite astounding really – even better when I watched the video playing back through again. I learnt so much more.

Having put it all back together again, thanked Richard for all his help – it really is wonderful to have people who are equally passionate around you – I tried to reflect on exactly what happened. With an Australian neighbour cursing at his television as Germany scored another goal, this was not an easy thing to do. However, the enormity of the situation hit me. Last week I was almost a beekeeper, today I actually became a beekeeper. Before writing this piece I went and had a look in the mirror and fortunately no beer belly had appeared, no beard was evident but the rose had most definitely had an effect on the cheeks. I am getting there to becoming a beekeeper.