'A lot of beekeepers are second and third generation. My father was a beekeeper and I've been interested in bees and beekeeping all my life.Even as a child at the age of four I would visit the bees with my father. I always got stung. It's unavoidable really. As a beekeeper you soon learn that you're never on top. You're very much at their mercy, plus they can sting through the mask. I'm feeling groggy at the moment because I got badly stung around the head this morning.

I keep a small commercial farm with between 250 and 300 hives. The main crops my bees feed themselves on are sycamore, but there is quite a profusion of different flowers in the area, along with clover and heather. I move the bees to the heather on the moors when it flowers in August. It produces wonderful honey.

Harvesting is a constant process from May to the end of October. In effect it's about three different crops. My Spring Blossom honey is early season (May to June) and Summer Blossom is the mid to late season (July to October). I make between four and nine tonnes a year, which works out as roughly 2,200 jars. It seems like a lot but it is barely enough to support my wife and three children. I did a degree in linguistics a long time ago and I still do a bit of translation work, but I've devoted all my life to bees, so I could never stop, and I could never tire of the taste of honey.'
Interview by Chloe Diski

· For stockists and information on Marcus Cordingly's honey check out: www.nyorkshoney.co.uk