The Centenary Honey Show

The Centenary National Honey Show was an outstanding success, and the Show would very much like to thank the Company for their continued support. 

The competitive honey show had a record 2412 entries (+20% on last year), and as ever, the stunning racks full of honey and mead did not fail to impress. Several new classes for the Centenary, reflecting some of those from the early years and the shop window class wowed the visitors and importantly, the exhibitors enjoyed putting them together – so much so, they have asked us to keep the shop window class in the programme for another year. 

 

Our key speakers for the lecture programme Mike Palmer and Randy Oliver, both from the USA kept their audience informed, entertained and inspired. We were pleased, with the support of the Company, to be able to record these lectures, so their knowledge can be shared amongst the wider beekeeping world via YouTube. Previous lectures have been watched by many thousands of people from all across the globe. 

With the recent Yellow Legged Asian hornet “invasion” we changed the programme and invited the NBU to present the Jean Blaxland memorial lecture. Nigel Semmence detailed the current situation and gave advice to beekeepers regarding what they needed to do in order to slow the distribution of the hornet in the UK. 

As usual the workshops were many, varied and well attended, with most of them being full. The wax workshops, candle making, and wax pot making were fully booked very early in the year and shows the continued interest in our craft. 

 

The trade show had something for everyone from equipment, clothing, books, and meads to the charitable organisations. 

For the centenary show, we had the most fantastic display of photographs by Eric Tourneret both outside the convention centre and along the corridors of the first floor. Eric’s book “the World of Bees” is reviewed in this newsletter. 

But the highlight of the Show had to be the opening by HRH The Princess Royal. She was greeted by the trustees of the Show, shown an observation hive, demonstrations of skep making, encaustic art and wax flowers, then guided through the key elements of how beeswax candles are judged by John Chandler. 

Her route took her past several of the trade stalls and she met Eric Tourneret along with veteran book seller, Jerry Burbidge. HRH was shown the centenary classes, the honey show and met some of the junior exhibitors who were delighted to be able to speak to her. After formally opening the Show, HRH walked outside to plant a pollinator friendly tree (Robinia pseudo acacia) celebrating the Centenary. 

 

Bob Maurer (Chairman of the Honey Show)