July’s 2nd Monday meeting was all about the steps from having a super of honey through to having a prize-winning jar at one of the many local honey shows. The first, Brailes, is in August so we thought this meeting the perfect time to cover this topic. We had over 20 members attending including a number of new members who had only recently got their bees so hopefully going through clearing bees from supers through extraction to bottling was especially useful for them.
The event was put together by Ray Pearce (our Chair) and George Heighton, our new Trustee. George and his wife Drina had some prize-winning honey at the Tysoe Flower Show in 2022 (click here to see the report on the show) so they know a bit about what honey show judges expect to see.
The evening started with a frame of capped honey and discussing the different ways to test if the honey is ready for extraction. And that then set the tone for the evening as of course for just about every technique and process involved ‘from super to show’ generated a number of discussions and opinions…..
…such as
- Does honey ferment if left for too long in a honey bucket
- Do jars for honey need to be sterilised or just washed before honey is put in them
- What temperature should you use to de-crystallise honey
- Porter bee escapes – good or bad
- When entering a jar of honey into a show do you leave the lid on, and risk there being some honey stuck on the underside, or take a clean lid and fit it as you put the jar down for judging.
Well you can imagine it, a classic case of ask 2 beekeepers…(or in this case about 20!).
We ended the evening with the 100 Club draw and as always Carolyn managed to ensure that one of the winners was at the evening!
We thank Ray and George for their work pulling together the evening, Graham for the Asian Hornet update, Carolyn for the 100 Club draw and Ray, Paul and Julia Neal for doing the refreshments.