The Perfect Show Honey

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Mellifera397

Field Bee
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
Messages
510
Reaction score
0
Location
London
Hive Type
National
Hello everyone,

Has anyone got pictures of honey that they entered for shows. I'm finding it very difficult to get all of the scum off the top of the honey and wondered whether a very low level is 'acceptable'. Also what is the clarity of a good show honey like?

Thanks for replies and photos in advance.

M
 
PM JBM he knows the dark arts for showing honey and has won with a few
 
Ideally your honey will have rested in a settling tank prior to jarring up, a lot of 'bits' will have risen to the top so this helps. We use a white rectangular tank with gate valve for this, a piece of cling film is laid across the honey and then dragged to the opposite end of the gate taking with it any of the risen debris.
Your shouldn't then have any 'scum' on your jarred honey. The cling film will also work on single jars but is a lot more hassle.
Top tip is make sure your jars are filled, don't go by weight - hold jar up to a light, you shouldn't be able to see light between the bottom of lid and top of honey.
Good resource for info is the national honey show website.
Best of luck, regards zac
 
To start at the beginning, choose your frames carefully - go for ones which don't have any pollen in them and extract them separately from your other stuff, one type of honey at a time. Select honey with a good aroma and flavour, too!!
 
For the regular honey showers, a small amount of starting material is avoided.

Allowed to settle in a settling tank - where bits go down and scum goes up, the majority removed from the gate valve will have neither.

No bits either, for the serious beeks. Filtered through 100 micron filter (or even finer) is likely. Again, they start with rather more than a single jar of honey and finish with a choice of several for show purposes. Your clarity needs to be as good or better than the rest!

If you are struggling to get sufficient to show you are at a disadvantage straight away, unless it is a local
show with no 'serious' contenders.

Every stage of preparation needs special attention, even down to selecting the jars.
 
Jenkins images indicate some clouding even with class winners which is exactly what I noticed with winners at the Shrewsbury Flower show over this weekend. Clearly (no pun intended) judges make decisions based on a variety of factors according to the class of the entry and their own opinions irrespective of any laid down criteria. In short read the show criteria for the classes and take a risk or two as it is good experience. Perfection is too difficult anyway as the judges all have different opinions as to what is best. I know as I used to exhibit honey and wines too but am not bothered any more - all my rosettes and trophies in sport etc all discarded ages ago.
As a matter of interest, looking at the two classes at the SFS for a frame of capped liquid Honey, in one class the winner was a frame of white beautifully capped evenly level cells edge to edge in either direction and on both sides of the frame whilst in an adjacent class where there was an almost identical (perfect in my opinion) frame that had been relegated to second place behind the winner which was a yellowy unevenly level capped fame of honey with some cells leaking into the base of the display box and some cells at the edge not even capped. When I spoke to a steward who accompanied one of the judges doing these two classes he explained that there two different judges, one of whom seemed to prefer weight rather than appearance. I rest my case as it is all a bit hit and miss and, despite being a beek, I was merely a Steward on the Wines anyway.
 
Last edited:
I can agree to most of that after seeing some of the bizzarre dercisions made bu one judge at the Royal Welsh. Two different classes for frames of honey judged by different judges and in one class everyone agreed that the winner was probably the worse frame entered (same happened the year before - even the winner agreed his shouldn't have had a card) No award given for cut comb at the RWAS yet the same one which I entered at the Gower Show came second My cake of wax which got third at the RWAS didn't get a place at the Gower but yet another cake I entered which I though was far inferior made second. In the end a lot is down to the judge's taste and whether his breakfast egg was boiled properly that morning.
 
Thanks for all the help, advice and photos.

I won first prize in my club's novice section and Third in the novice section at Southport Flower Show.

I was pleased with that considering the jars ended up falling over in the car on the way there :(

I have some photos which I will add later.


M
 
Well done.

It's a great feeling.

This is my first year and I got a novice second and third.

More amazingly was a first for a wax mould on my first attempt.

Doubtless downhill from here.
 
:winner1st::winner1st: Congratulations to you both - first prize, first time, brilliant!
 
Well done Marton. I won a first with wax when I started many decades ago. I imagine your combs will be all new and most of your wax will have come from cappings so you will have good stuff to work with. Before you know it you will be hooked into the show world and be winning more and then trying your luck at bigger and bigger shows awash with prize cards and cluttering up your house with silver trophies bearing your name . Eventually maybe progressing to judging the efforts of others. Ultimately, speaking from my own experience, the novelty of tasting hundreds of jars of honey does wear off after 50+ years
 
Thanks. My regret is not getting bees 30 years ago. Just under 60 seems too late.

I use a heat gun so no cappings but harvested brace comb. I think some must have been dandelion as it was very yellow.

Don't let Mrs Marton hear about clutter ;)
 
Thanks for all the help, advice and photos.

I won first prize in my club's novice section and Third in the novice section at Southport Flower Show.

I was pleased with that considering the jars ended up falling over in the car on the way there :(

I have some photos which I will add later.


M

Good on ya! you'll be hooked now
 
well done mellifera
 

Latest posts

Back
Top