Well Dear Reader,
It's almost the longest day and all downhill from there on in as the earth spins on it's axis, wobbles, sneezes, and tips the northern hemisphere into the long slog to Autumn.
I often wonder what it's like keeping bees in warmer climes where they have 8-9 months of flows, and swarming seasons, well, pretty much all the time. 7 day inspections ? or just go for numbers and averages.
As I found towards the end of last month the weather here in Wiltshire had turned from a glorious spring to a colder June, I turned my attention to my entries to the Royal Bath & West Show's Honey Competition. I'd never entered this before, in fact I hardly enter any shows as they seem to fall at the wrong time in terms of preparations.
And prepare you must it appears. My combined entry was excellent on quality and range of honey varieties but I should have left the OSR honey in a water bath for longer to stop it clouding. Result ? 4th Place. Oh and the display was too small. And I had misread the instructions which were typically vague when they said up to 11kg honey (which I thought included wax etc) It doesn't. And skyscraper entries always get placed higher than thou.
Note to self. Design a display akin to The Shard next time made out of wax.
Bee nucs. I specially selected a gloriously well developed nuc. All fresh frames, all fully drawn, big fat queen, BIAS. Result ? Not placed as it didn't have the requisite '2 frames of stores' and was starving. Bullocks I say to that. A nuc should have bees and brood. Stores ? that's what a feeder is for. Hey ho.
Wax 227g+ moulded and displayed on a doily. F*** me. A DOILY. Where the hell do you buy those from nowadays ? I almost resorted to cutting one out of a sheet of A4 paper, then I remembered Amazon. Just in time. Result ? unplaced. Why ? Well at least 3 of the others had wax so white it looked like it had been bleached. the winner never weighed 227g. I know as I picked it up. It was more like a thin pancake.
Dark Honey. Fail
Medium Honey. Fail. Clouding (see OSR above)
Display to sell. Unplaced. This I was particularly naffed off about as I had purchased a rather natty printed jubilee cake stand. Apparently the moulded '70' out of wax, the tea lights and the wax bars needed to have my bleedin' name and address inscribed on them as they were 'for sale'. I thought this only applied to honey ? Bloody judges.
Honey Cake. Fail. Apparently the bottom fell off when the judges picked it up. (yes ok that was my fault I scribed around the base of the tin as it had glued itself to the surface. Glue (honey) clearly didn't work. However, I handed out pieces as we cleared the Honey Tent to helpers and all marked it 10/10. So there.
Langstroth frame for extracting. Fail. Granulating. Well if you'd judged it on the Wednesday evening it was 100% liquid and a fine frame as well. Only one cell uncapped on the edge.
Combination class. Unplaced. Oh and some thieving little bunt half hinched the beautiful 1lb section I put in with this.
Section class. I didn't enter as at the time my sections weren't good enough. I could have won this hands down....
Observation Hive. Result. 2nd. I was pleased with this. I bid for and bought a 4 frame hive in an auction recently and put it to good use . Only downside was on the middle day the bees decided they didn't like the entrance tube any more and came in over the flap in the marquee. Only 2 people stung.
Light Honey Class. 2nd Place. That was a surprise. Lovely light honey too. I fully agree with the judges marking and scoring.
Double Entry (jar and frame/section/candle).
Drum Roll
First Place.
I take back everything I may have said about other entries, judging, entry requirements and ley lines. A little Blue Card is what it's all about.
The footnote to all this was my old dear mother was particularly happy as when as a girl she used to attend every show there, her father was a founding Patron of the show, and this would have made his day.
Hmm. County honey show this October. How much (or little) prep can I get away with for that ? The winner of the wax flowers took 3 weeks to make them. And they were very good and well deserving of a 'Blue Ribbon'.
KR
S
It's almost the longest day and all downhill from there on in as the earth spins on it's axis, wobbles, sneezes, and tips the northern hemisphere into the long slog to Autumn.
I often wonder what it's like keeping bees in warmer climes where they have 8-9 months of flows, and swarming seasons, well, pretty much all the time. 7 day inspections ? or just go for numbers and averages.
As I found towards the end of last month the weather here in Wiltshire had turned from a glorious spring to a colder June, I turned my attention to my entries to the Royal Bath & West Show's Honey Competition. I'd never entered this before, in fact I hardly enter any shows as they seem to fall at the wrong time in terms of preparations.
And prepare you must it appears. My combined entry was excellent on quality and range of honey varieties but I should have left the OSR honey in a water bath for longer to stop it clouding. Result ? 4th Place. Oh and the display was too small. And I had misread the instructions which were typically vague when they said up to 11kg honey (which I thought included wax etc) It doesn't. And skyscraper entries always get placed higher than thou.
Note to self. Design a display akin to The Shard next time made out of wax.
Bee nucs. I specially selected a gloriously well developed nuc. All fresh frames, all fully drawn, big fat queen, BIAS. Result ? Not placed as it didn't have the requisite '2 frames of stores' and was starving. Bullocks I say to that. A nuc should have bees and brood. Stores ? that's what a feeder is for. Hey ho.
Wax 227g+ moulded and displayed on a doily. F*** me. A DOILY. Where the hell do you buy those from nowadays ? I almost resorted to cutting one out of a sheet of A4 paper, then I remembered Amazon. Just in time. Result ? unplaced. Why ? Well at least 3 of the others had wax so white it looked like it had been bleached. the winner never weighed 227g. I know as I picked it up. It was more like a thin pancake.
Dark Honey. Fail
Medium Honey. Fail. Clouding (see OSR above)
Display to sell. Unplaced. This I was particularly naffed off about as I had purchased a rather natty printed jubilee cake stand. Apparently the moulded '70' out of wax, the tea lights and the wax bars needed to have my bleedin' name and address inscribed on them as they were 'for sale'. I thought this only applied to honey ? Bloody judges.
Honey Cake. Fail. Apparently the bottom fell off when the judges picked it up. (yes ok that was my fault I scribed around the base of the tin as it had glued itself to the surface. Glue (honey) clearly didn't work. However, I handed out pieces as we cleared the Honey Tent to helpers and all marked it 10/10. So there.
Langstroth frame for extracting. Fail. Granulating. Well if you'd judged it on the Wednesday evening it was 100% liquid and a fine frame as well. Only one cell uncapped on the edge.
Combination class. Unplaced. Oh and some thieving little bunt half hinched the beautiful 1lb section I put in with this.
Section class. I didn't enter as at the time my sections weren't good enough. I could have won this hands down....
Observation Hive. Result. 2nd. I was pleased with this. I bid for and bought a 4 frame hive in an auction recently and put it to good use . Only downside was on the middle day the bees decided they didn't like the entrance tube any more and came in over the flap in the marquee. Only 2 people stung.
Light Honey Class. 2nd Place. That was a surprise. Lovely light honey too. I fully agree with the judges marking and scoring.
Double Entry (jar and frame/section/candle).
Drum Roll
First Place.
I take back everything I may have said about other entries, judging, entry requirements and ley lines. A little Blue Card is what it's all about.
The footnote to all this was my old dear mother was particularly happy as when as a girl she used to attend every show there, her father was a founding Patron of the show, and this would have made his day.
Hmm. County honey show this October. How much (or little) prep can I get away with for that ? The winner of the wax flowers took 3 weeks to make them. And they were very good and well deserving of a 'Blue Ribbon'.
KR
S
