THE Guardian’s intrepid reporter Clare Snowdon gets a buzz out of bees.

AS far as insects go those close to me will tell you I am petrified of anything that flies around my head, so to be invited to become a beekeeper for the day was not top of my bucket list.

However, I have always been fascinated by the little creatures so I decided to bite the bullet and agreed to spend the day with Llandovery beekeeper Michael Davies.

Kitted up like a spacewoman, I joined Michael to visit three of his hives at a spot a couple of miles from his home for the annual collection of honey, which we would later prepare for bottling.

The retired schoolteacher learned his skills as a young boy from his uncle.

“I would often go with my father’s brother to the hives as a youngster, he was the one that got me interested,” he said.

When we arrive, there is a gentle buzz in the air as the bees zip busily in and out of the hives.

It is a lovely scene, but one that is disappearing fast.

Pollinating insects have declined dramatically across Wales over the past 30 years, leading to the Welsh Government producing an Action Plan for Pollinators in 2013.

Although we are here today to collect, these particular bees are valued more for their work in the garden.

“Many owners acquire hives not because of the honey they produce but because they pollinate plants,” said Michael.

Michael opens up the first hive, calming the bees with a smoker - a small bellows-like tool for blowing hot smoke into the hive.

“Beekeepers have used smokers for hundreds of years,” explains Michael.

“When smoke enters the hive the bees panic. They think the hive is on fire and eat as much honey as possible in case they need to abandon it. This distracts and calms them, allowing the beekeeper to take out the frames,” he said.

It certainly worked. I was feeling quite relaxed as the overfed bees buzzed around us.

Michael then opened up a relatively young hive, and the sound became a deeper humming noise.

The bees were more aggressive and protective, buzzing around and becoming more and more excited.

The sound is incredible - like thousands of tiny motors flying all around you.

In normal circumstances I would run around like a raving lunatic when surround by a swarm of angry insects, but Michael put me at ease - and we both got very excited when he spotted the queen.

“The queen bee is very important to the hive,” Michael tells me.

“She lives in the bottom level of the hive. Her main purpose is to lay eggs; she will lay well over 1,000 eggs per day."

She will mate only once and holds enough sperm to lay eggs for three to five years.

We remove the frames filled with honey from the hive and take them back to Michael’s home, Cwmrhuddan Lodge, where the real work begins.

Each level of a hive has around 11 frames.

Once a frame is full of honey the bees cap it with wax.

We remove the capping – a very sticky job – and Michael puts the frames into a honey extractor, which he then spins by hand, removing most of the honey using centrifugal force.

The honey then drains through a system of strainers and is left for 48 hours before being jarred.

Michael sells his honey at a number of local outlets in Llandovery.

“You can’t get any better than local honey,” he says.

“There are a number of health benefits from honey.”

One of the main Science and Technology exhibitions at this year’s National Eisteddfod looked at the use of honey to fight infection. Honey's antibiotic powers have been recognised for centuries.

“Honey was used in wound dressings as long ago as the Middle Ages,” said Eisteddfod Science Officer, Dr Robyn Wheldon-Williams.

“The elements of the New Zealand honey, Manuka, have long been established, and is known as ‘liquid gold’, used regularly by stars like Scarlett Johansson and Novak Djokovic to ward off infections.”

Jars of still-edible honey have been found in the tombs of Egyptian mummies.

My day as a beekeeper gave me a wonderful insight into the incredible work of our pollinator friends.

According to research, one out of every three bites of food we eat is thanks to the work of pollinators - pollinators generate $217billion to the global economy.

The decline in bees is down to a variety of factors, but one thing is for sure, bees play a vital role in the balance of the world’s renewable natural resources and food supplies - and I will never see them in the same light again.