The author's cousin is a doctor and her husband is an engineer. Very impressive for the author was the way the beekeeper made his decisions with the bees: Not by textbook, as the author had just read one, but more like a doctor. The beekeeper looks at his patient, talks to him, evaluates the information and impressions available to him, and then makes a decision that is influenced to a large extent by his intuition. Whether it is the right - or even the best - decision, he will usually not know.

Keeping his own colony of bees in the garden, dealing with the wild animal honeybee, learning to understand the processes in the colony of bees, that seemed to be a fascinating thought to the author. Bees are today increasingly threatened by extinction, one reads, thereby many vegetable food is dependent on the pollination achievement of the bees. With the hobby beekeeping one can make a small contribution to the preservation of these fascinating wild animals, and besides harvest own honey.

With the author the resolution ripened to enter into the beekeeping and to provide so for a beautiful reconciliation to its office activity in the occupation.  He was looking forward to being allowed to accompany his first bee colony soon.

And because as a beekeeper one cannot act exclusively according to textbook, he followed the advice to look for an experienced beekeeper - a beekeeper godfather - with whom he can learn, and who looks over his shoulders when he starts with his first bee colony.