Hi Jbr,
Good first moves then, making that initial contact. Here, Lincs BKA, your options are likely to be opening up, but what next you say.
My tip - with no apologies for making it. Check your own calendar to see what time you have free. Not working, but have transport and can spare one or two days a week, or can only spare one day at a weekend. Find among your BKA someone that has a large number of colonies and might need a bit of assistance. There are always opportunities for making someones work easier by sharing the lumping and dumping while you learn the ropes. An offer of free labour for free on-the-job tuition is an attractive one with benefits for both parties. You have to turn, probably up bright and early, with your beesuit, a desire to be useful and a thirst for sucking up the experience, which will subtly change each week as the season progresses.
Good luck, go for it. Very quickly you will gain an aggregation of valuable experience. If you inspect 40 hives for one year, this isn't the same as inspecting two hives for twenty years, but it's likely to be a very good grounding.
Select a promising mentor, make your basic offer and arrange to meet and discuss the ground rules, mutual availability etc. Enjoy.
