HONEY SHOW any tips

[Mike a]

We had an association meeting last night with a guest speaker in from Trading Standards.

Trading Standards are aware of beeks microwaving their honey and they will only offer advice about it as they have no reason to go any further unless the honey is seriously over heated and thus should be clearly labelled as cooking honey only. He advised us they often buy various honeys at shows and local fetes and events and have them tested for :-

Types of pollen (if suspected to be imported and sold as pure UK honey)
Enzymes
HMF
Weight
Grade of filtering used
Label conforms to rules and all the required info is in plain view.
Although the Best Before date is up to the beek to determine. If the date (day/month/year) isn't stated on the main label it needs to state where the best before date can be found ie - label on lid or bottom of the jar. Also the Best before date can be used as a lot number for record keeping purposes.

I asked him to define what grade of filter would require the label to say the honey is filtered he couldn't give me an answer on the spot but promised to get back to me.

 

[dc197]

My tip - read the rules with a magnifying glass.
I was disqualified from my first ever show for using the wrong type of jars for my honey. I later saw I'd broken rule 6i. Pffff.

The rules:

http://************************/files/BBKA-honeyshow-rules.pdf

And because this daft site ruins links....
http:// www. britishbee .org .uk /files/BBKA-honeyshow-rules.pdf

 

[rowbow]

bubbles

When pouring the honey let it run down the side of the jar (like pouring beer)
John

 

[dc197]

Our judge narrated his actions so everyone learned something.

Things he didn't like:
Crystallisation throughout
Small crystals at the bottom of the jar
Air gaps as discussed
Branded labels on jar
Wrong type of jar
Class labels in wrong place
Viscosity (not much you can do about this)
Wrong shade of honey for the class chosen
Supposedly crystallised honey still runny


Blobs and drops of wax
Dirty wax
Cracks in wax
Wax bars over cooked
Wax bars under weight

Cakes not fully cooked
Pock marks in cakes

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Our judge narrated his actions so everyone learned something.

Things he didn't like:
Crystallisation throughout
Small crystals at the bottom of the jar
Air gaps as discussed
Branded labels on jar
Wrong type of jar
Class labels in wrong place
Viscosity (not much you can do about this)
Wrong shade of honey for the class chosen
Supposedly crystallised honey still runny


Blobs and drops of wax
Dirty wax
Cracks in wax
Wax bars over cooked
Wax bars under weight

Cakes not fully cooked
Pock marks in cakes

and apart from that it was perfect?

 

[dc197]

Monsieur Abeille, that was a collection of entries. Not all faults with a single entry.

 

[oliver90owner]

Sense of humour might be required here, somewhere!


and apart from that it was perfect?

Might have been, but there might be other faults, omitted from the list.

RAB

 

[RoofTops]

dc197's list is all fairly simple stuff with one exception. Grading the colour of the honey can be difficult without a setting of grading glasses which most folk don't have. My solution at our show is simply to take the honey along and borrow some glasses from the organisers and then decide which class to enter it into! More organised shows may require you to declare your entries before the day which would prevent this. Very light and very dark honeys are easy but the ones in between are not so simple to classify and could end up with disqualification.

 

[Rosti]

I am going to stick to the photography, that way I dont tend to have any difficulty deciding which class to enter .... and I could probably cram most of those faults into a jar of the yellow stuff if I put my mind to it anyway

 

[Poly Hive]

Two hints.

A steward should be able to assist you with grading your honey for a class with the official grading glasses.

Read the schedule carefully.

My blooper was the shop window display and I was over by the thickness of the ply, I forgot to trim that much off and that was that stuffed. Disqualified.

PH