Honeyshow anecdotes & tips n tricks for a talk rqrd.

[Dodge]

Hi all, happy new year.

I have been tasked with talking about Honey Shows at my local BBKA Branch.

I am looking for any funny anecdotes, tips n trips from shows you are willing to share with me please?

It would be interesting to here if you don't like Honeyshows and why?

Either reply here or message me.

Many thanks,

Dodge

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi all, happy new year.

I have been tasked with talking about Honey Shows at my local BBKA Branch.

I am looking for any funny anecdotes, tips n trips from shows you are willing to share with me please?

It would be interesting to here if you don't like Honeyshows and why?

Either reply here or message me.

Many thanks,

Dodge

I once went to The National Honey show where there was a mind boggling array of show entries. There were a couple of shelves of black honey. I grabbed a steward to ask where such dark honey came from to be told that the jars were blacked out as the honey was in a blind tasting class. What a fool!!!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

At the Royal Welsh last year the chap tasting the honey had an amazing box of tricks in a velvet lined leather case which he opened to the applause of a few groupies. I never knew there were honey show judge camp followers.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

At the Royal Welsh last year the chap tasting the honey had an amazing box of tricks in a velvet lined leather case which he opened to the applause of a few groupies. I never knew there were honey show judge camp followers.

he was Irish, may have been a leprechaun with his tribe

 

[elainemary]

Hi all, happy new year.

I have been tasked with talking about Honey Shows at my local BBKA Branch.

I am looking for any funny anecdotes, tips n trips from shows you are willing to share with me please?

It would be interesting to here if you don't like Honeyshows and why?

Either reply here or message me.

Many thanks,

Dodge

There’s a few ideas in this thread.

Going to the National Honey Show?

If you're planning to go to the National Honey Show and would like to meet up, PM me and we might be able to arrange something.

beekeepingforum.co.uk

 

[masterBK]

Having judged hundreds of shows over the last four decades here is a couple of things for you.

In one county show I noticed a daddy long legs (Tipulid fly) walking along a table with a leg missing and remarked jokingly to a Steward that perhaps I ought to look out for the missing leg in a jar of honey. It was indeed in one of the entries.
I have found all sorts of things in honey including curly hairs, a blue bottle, a varroa (in chunk honey).
At another show I found a long red hair in a jar of honey and left a note under the jar to the exhibitor to keep his tabby cat out of the kitchen when bottling. Later that day he came over to me and told me he hadn't got a cat but did have a dog, a red setter .

All good reasons not to change lids at a show as it this practice not only looses the aroma from the honey but risks dust and other particles getting into it.

 

[Pembroke]

I can remember one of the stewards at the National Welsh Honey show many years ago telling me how to fill the empty cells of a "capped frame in a display case" so that every cell was full and capped. Whether his method would work or not I have no idea I never tried it.

I've also heard stories of using molasses as an additive to make honey darker.

You asked if we enjoy honey shows, well I do, if you examine the schedule you can work out which classes will be over run with entries and which classes will be poorly supported. Go for the poorly supported and in some shows you might be one of only three entries so guaranteed a certificate of some level.

Try to encourage more people to have a go, the more entries the better.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Go for the poorly supported and in some shows you might be one of only three entries so guaranteed a certificate of some level

not really - if your exhibit is not up to the mark, the judge will just not award a card - I've seen a class with only two entries and only a third place was awarded, and other classes with half a dozen, not awarded any prizes at all.
All you can guarantee is that with fewer entries, if there are entries up to standard, there is less competition

 

[elainemary]

I can remember one of the stewards at the National Welsh Honey show many years ago telling me how to fill the empty cells of a "capped frame in a display case" so that every cell was full and capped. Whether his method would work or not I have no idea I never tried it.

I've also heard stories of using molasses as an additive to make honey darker.

You asked if we enjoy honey shows, well I do, if you examine the schedule you can work out which classes will be over run with entries and which classes will be poorly supported. Go for the poorly supported and in some shows you might be one of only three entries so guaranteed a certificate of some level.

Try to encourage more people to have a go, the more entries the better.

I was asked by a judge I was stewarding for this year “what’s wrong with this honey sample” as a way of keeping me on my toes. Enjoyed that & learnt a few things too. He caught me out though on a sealed frame of honey that had lines with dribbles down some of the cells. I didn’t know what had caused that (couldn’t be wax moth in really clean super could it ???) he said it was caused by a Braula fly. Another question was “what tricks can a beekeeper use to cheat at a honey show to get perfect cappings on a show frame for extraction”. I knew that one - use sugar to draw and fill perfect frames with v white cappings. Which is why some judges taste the honey in perfect frames for show.

 

[elainemary]

not really - if your exhibit is not up to the mark, the judge will just not award a card - I've seen a class with only two entries and only a third place was awarded, and other classes with half a dozen, not awarded any prizes at all.
All you can guarantee is that with fewer entries, if there are entries up to standard, there is less competition

Saw this with my judge at the National honey show this year. There was one class with only 2 entries and only one that was a reasonable entry but didn’t justify a significant prize card, so he gave a commended only

 

[pargyle]

I was asked by a judge I was stewarding for this year “what’s wrong with this honey sample” as a way of keeping me on my toes. Enjoyed that & learnt a few things too. He caught me out though on a sealed frame of honey that had lines with dribbles down some of the cells. I didn’t know what had caused that (couldn’t be wax moth in really clean super could it ???) he said it was caused by a Braula fly. Another question was “what tricks can a beekeeper use to cheat at a honey show to get perfect cappings on a show frame for extraction”. I knew that one - use sugar to draw and fill perfect frames with v white cappings. Which is why some judges taste the honey in perfect frames for show.

Braula is pretty much a rarity in the UK ... since Varroa became established and treatments being applied it has hammered the Braula population almost to extinction .. it was never really a serious parasite as it did not attack the host bee for it's food - it just stole the food the bees were feeding on - very clever parasite. Still prevalent in countries like Australia.

Your judge had a keen eye ... Braula larvae do mark the wax cappings: See the tracks here:

 

[polymath]

Class Cookies and Biscuits with Recipe. Judge said all entries were biscuits unless stated on the recipe they were a cookie, as such any that did not snap were not good. Lescon, mark on your recipe if your entry is a cookie or a biscuit, different judging criteria!

 

[polymath]

Cut comb, how to get a perfect edge after cutting, get a cleaver heat in hot water, dry and then place against edge of cut comb to get perfect edge.

 

[polymath]

Soft set, so you have a small imperfection in the top, no worries take a scoop out. Honey that has been entered for previous competitions can be entered again, so if there is a judges scoop mark it looks like it has just been entered in a previous show but you have managed to remove that nasty fleck/mark in the top.

 

[polymath]

Most important read the schedule, two matching means matching, i.e. jar type, filled to same level, etc etc. Dimensions for display seen them too big, display of honey for sale, small jars are lovely but seen one kicked out as labeling was wrong i.e. did not meet regs. Read the schedule.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Braula is pretty much a rarity in the UK ... since Varroa became established and treatments being applied it has hammered the Braula population almost to extinction .. it was never really a serious parasite as it did not attack the host bee for it's food - it just stole the food the bees were feeding on - very clever parasite. Still prevalent in countries like Australia.

Your judge had a keen eye ... Braula larvae do mark the wax cappings: See the tracks here:

View attachment 34828

Heavens, yes!
But surely nobody in their right mind would enter a frame like that?

 

[Pembroke]

Class Cookies and Biscuits with Recipe. Judge said all entries were biscuits unless stated on the recipe they were a cookie, as such any that did not snap were not good. Lescon, mark on your recipe if your entry is a cookie or a biscuit, different judging criteria!

A few years ago at the National Welsh Honey Show (at the Royal Welsh) there was a class for honey biscuits, the organisers provided the recipe. Everyone who tried to make them produced a flexible, nice tasting but no snap biscuit. It was only when someone queried the original recipe it was found that the organisers had used a sugar biscuit recipe and just substituted the same amount of honey for the sugar. The problem was honey is liquid, sugar is not so the added liquid in the sugar recipe was making the biscuits flexible.

Once the other liquid was taken out the biscuits were fine, but then the class was replaced by some other confectionery.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Heavens, yes!
But surely nobody in their right mind would enter a frame like that?

you should see some of the rubbish I've seen entered in the NHS

 

[plain_hunt]

I was asked by a judge I was stewarding for this year “what’s wrong with this honey sample” as a way of keeping me on my toes. Enjoyed that & learnt a few things too. He caught me out though on a sealed frame of honey that had lines with dribbles down some of the cells. I didn’t know what had caused that (couldn’t be wax moth in really clean super could it ???) he said it was caused by a Braula fly. Another question was “what tricks can a beekeeper use to cheat at a honey show to get perfect cappings on a show frame for extraction”. I knew that one - use sugar to draw and fill perfect frames with v white cappings. Which is why some judges taste the honey in perfect frames for show.

Elainemary, this frame? I asked another judge as I didn‘t agree with the braula diagnosis, and he agreed with me. I think it’s been frozen.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Elainemary, this frame? I asked another judge as I didn‘t agree with the braula diagnosis, and he agreed with me. I think it’s been frozen. View attachment 34844

Brahma look like thin lines looking at Phillip’s picture. I freeze whole frames that don’t sell at the end of the season and they stay fine touch wood.