Get the buzz FROM BEEKEEPING

I stand perfectly still, not daring to move a muscle. All around me I can hear the frantic buzzing of hundreds of bees darting through the air. Through the mesh hood protecting me I can see the swarm of bees diving at the foreign object that is invading their habitat. Me.

“It’s okay, they will leave you alone in a minute,” says Ben Cole, the beekeeper I am here to meet. “They like some people more than others. They seem to like you.” I beg to differ.

Ben Cole and his wife Penelope are beginner beekeepers from Hemingbrough, North Yorkshire, who started their first hive around a year ago.

“Today we are treating the bees