The Honey Show for the 79th year was held in the Rake Village Hall. Last year it was not possible to hold the Honey Show due to the restrictions and for the protection of our members. It was decided that, due to the uncertainty of holding a Honey Show this year, an informal show should be created for members only. This was mainly to keep numbers to a reasonable level. Many members unfortunately still stayed away but perhaps they had taken a late holiday; this was despite the Honey Show being held as a social event for members to call in at any time of the day, for tea and cake (which was free).


The Show classes were revised this year
and the open and members classes were integrated. In many cases these were duplicated, mainly in the honey classes. The main reason was to provide a more open show and simplify entries. In the past members have entered both the members and the open classes. In fact, for the last few years there have been no entries into the open classes by non-members.
Instead of judging the display and photographic classes this year all visitors were invited to select their preferences in each class, which were then collated to establish the winner. There was also a forage class in which members were invited to create a display of forage with their common and Latin names, disappointingly there were only two entries. This was rather surprising as most beekeepers are interested in the plants around their apiaries. Another new class was a drawing of a bee with all the named external parts. Again, there were only two entries. Does this mean that beekeepers are not interested in the beautiful creatures that make up their colonies and provide honey to put on their toast for breakfast?
Another new class was introduced this year for other hive products to included polish, lip balm, hand cleanser and wax wraps. This attracted a good number of entries. A reason to include these new classes was because not all members have honey and there is a growing interest in these other hive products which are included in the National Honey Show.
Most beekeepers will have noticed earlier in the summer that the honey crop was going to be small. It was not however anticipated that a large number of colonies would in fact have
little or no honey, except minimal amounts for the colony’s day to day survival. Earlier in the season the Queens’ laying rate was reduced and some colonies started to regress.
This meant summer feeding, something which is almost unknown. But if you wanted your colonies to survive this was In many cases the only option. We did of course check that exhibitors were entering Honey and not sugar syrup. The result was that the number of entries into the Honey classes was considerably reduced to less than 25% of the number of entries in the 2019 Honey Show.
Although we had planned the Honey Show it was always uncertain whether it could be held, which made it difficult to plan to far ahead and book Judges. It was decided to hold an in-house event.

In the address given by Tom Blackburn (Association President) at the presentations he considered that the judging had been professionally undertaken and equal to any Honey Show Judge.

Show Judging
The judging was divided into categories and judged by members that had the requisite knowledge to judge the category and they were as follows:
Brad Davis – Honey, Wax and Mead,
Alison Turner – Confectionery.
Melanie Espin – Other Hive Products.
Chris Clark – Forage and Anatomy.
Ali Hollingbery and Hilary Hayward were the Honey Stewards
Elizabeth Eveleigh and Martin Smythe were the Scorers and Record Keepers.
Helen de Peyrecave and Penny Adams provided a continues supply of tea and cakes.
Dean Gregory and Chris Clark with other members set up and cleared the hall for the Show.
Anne-Chantal Ballard – provided the floral displays around the hall.
Sir Tom Blackburn – Presented the Trophies.
It was a good team effort, and I am grateful to all those people involved who made this possible and an enjoyable occasion.

It was disappointing that only 16 members (21 in 2019) entered the Show out of a membership of 180 members. Especially as the classes covered a wider number of classes to accommodate for a poor honey crop. The number of classes had been reduced to 36 classes (48 in 2019) in the schedule but had a wider scope than had been available in prior years.
There were some dispensations for entries this year as some of the classes could not be achieved due to poor weather and performance by the colonies. Combs were not drawn out to the extent that they are normally. The reason for the dispensation was to ensure a variety of entries could be on display to show a full range of products from the hive.
This year we were not able to award the Blue Ribbon which can only be awarded by a National Honey Judge, for the reason that this year we did not achieve the requisite number of entries to qualify to be able to award the Blue Ribbon.
A summary of the entries in the Honey Show were as follows:
2021 |
2019. 2018. 2017 |
2016. 2015 |
||||
Open honey and wax classes |
36 |
47 |
48 |
20 |
47 |
39 |
Other open classes |
29 |
28 |
42 |
38 |
29 |
30 |
Display class |
23 |
29 |
23 |
14 |
12 |
12 |
Members’ honey and wax classes |
0 |
61 |
68 |
42 |
70 |
56 |
Novice classes |
5 |
5 |
9 |
3 |
2 |
6 |
TOTAL ENTRIES |
93 |
170 |
190 |
117 |
160 |
153 |
Show Trophies
The Cocke Trophy
The highest number of points in Honey Classes 1 to 12. Richard Brewer
The Steep Trophy The best Exhibit of Honey in any Honey class. |
Richard Brewer |
The Kathleen Marriage Trophy The highest number of points in Wax Classes 30 to 35. |
Elizabeth Eveleigh |
The Jack Dennis Trophy The highest number points Shallow Frame in Class 10. |
Ali Hollingbery |
The Lady Tollemache Trophy The highest number points Comb Honey Classes 9. |
Ali Hollingbery |
The Sir Humphrey Tollemache Trophy The highest number of points in Classes 11 and 12. |
No Award |
The Sid Trenchard Memorial Trophy The highest number of points in Class 13 |
No Award |
The Rose Tankard The highest number points in Mead Classes 20 and 21. |
David Parkinson |
The Trevor Stubbs Memorial Trophy The highest number points in Novice Classes 17 to 19. |
Ali Hollingbery |
The Cole Platter The highest number points in Novice Classes 17 to 19. |
Katie Eveleigh |
The Mount Pleasant Trophy The highest points for photograph in Display Class 60. |
Peter Reader |
The Rogate Trophy The highest points for picture in Class 61. |
Elizabeth Eveleigh |
Novice Award |
No Award |
HONEY SHOW JUDGING – Honey Classes – Brad Davis
It was a pleasure to judge the entries of those members who took the opportunity to test their ability to best present the efforts of their bees’ endeavours at the Annual Honey show. I made notes of all the classes and am happy to respond to any emails from those members who entered and wish to know how I considered their particular entry (PDBKA@BeeDavis.co.uk). I also offer the following summary of the judging process for the jarred honey classes.
Before judging started all entries were checked to make sure they were entered into the right class. This was primarily to check the colour of liquid honey entries. David and the Honey Show administrators moved those that were incorrect to their correct class. Strictly this should be the responsibility of the entrant but requires use of standardised grading glasses.
Judging progressed one class at a time and was based on gradual elimination. The first stage in checking the jarred classes was to perform an external examination of the entries as they sat on the bench. Those that failed not being considered further. Next one jar of each entry more closely examined with the aid of a torch. Then an internal examination was undertaken with the aroma when first opened being noted. Finally a check on texture/ viscosity and taste of those entries remaining was used to place the entries. If there were faults with an entry that was placed the points awarded were modified downwards accordingly. These points were used to award some of the trophies that bridge more than one class.
Finally, well done to all those who received a placing certificate and particularly well done to those who received a trophy (or two!). I would like to echo the thanks made at the end to the Honey Show administrators and David Parkinson by our President Tom Blackburn and wish David all the best as he leaves us for pastures new next season.
Class Winners
Class | Class Description | First | Second | Third |
1 | Two Jars Light Honey | Helen De Peyrecave | – | – |
2 | Two Jars Medium Honey | Richard Brewer | Derek Beesley | Nicky Easton |
3 | Two Jars Dark Honey | Richard Brewer | – | – |
4 | Two Jars Crystallised Honey | Richard Brewer | – | Peter Reader |
5 | Two Jars of Soft Set Honey | – | – | – |
6 | Two Jars Chunk Honey 50% Comb | Ali Hollingbery | – | – |
8 | Two Jars Heather Honey Blend | – | – | – |
9 | Two Containers cut comb of heather 200g to 255g | Ali Hollingbery | – | – |
10 | One Shallow Frame of Comb Honey for extraction | Ali Hollingbery | Dean Gregory | – |
11 | Six Jars Liquid Honey (labelled for Sale) | – | – | – |
12 | Six Jars Soft Set Honey (labelled for Sale) | – | – | – |
13 | Two Jars of liquid or set Honey and 3 beeswax blocks 28g | – | – | – |
17 | One Jar of Liquid Honey | Derek Beesley | Andrew Rhodes | Ali Hollingbery |
18 | One Jar of Soft set Honey | – | – | – |
19 | One Block of Beeswax | Ali Hollingbery | – | – |
20 | One Bottle Dry Mead | David Parkinson | – | – |
21 | One Bottle Sweet Mead | David Parkinson | – | – |
30 | Two matching Cakes of Beeswax moulded 115g to 170g | Elizabeth Eveleigh | – | – |
31 | Two plain moulded Candles any size | Elizabeth Eveleigh | – | – |
32 | Two Tall Candles under 11⁄2″ plain or pattern any method | Richard Brewer | Elizabeth Eveleigh | – |
33 | Two matching Models using a mould with or without a wick | Elizabeth Eveleigh | – | – |
34 | Six Blocks of Beeswax matching of 28g | Ali Hollingbery | Elizabeth Eveleigh | David Parkinson |
35 | Cake of Beeswax 285g to 340g commercial | Elizabeth Eveleigh | David Parkinson | – |
40 | Honey Fruit Cake to recipe | Anne-Chantal Ballard | Elizabeth Eveleigh | Louise Buchanan |
41 | Honey Dressing own recipe 227g Jar | Katie Eveleigh | – | – |
42 | Six Honey Cookies | Katie Eveleigh | Elizabeth Eveleigh | Derek Beesley |
43 | Honey Nut Blondies to recipe | Katie Eveleigh | Derek Beesley | Elizabeth Eveleigh |
44 | Four Cup Cakes any flavour to recipe | – | Elizabeth Eveleigh | – |
50 | Furniture Polish (must contain Beeswax) | – | – | – |
51 | Lip Balm (containing Honey & Beeswax) | – | Elizabeth Eveleigh | – |
52 | Hand Cleanser (must contain Honey) | Rebecca Eveleigh | Katie Eveleigh | – |
53 | Two Wax Wraps 30cmx30cm | Elizabeth Eveleigh | – | – |
60 | Photograph any background must contian Honeybee | Peter Reader | Elizabeth A | Ali Hollingbery |
61 | A line drawing of Honeybee naming all external parts | Elizabeth Eveleigh | Helen de Peyrecave | – |
62 | Floral Display of 5 honeybee forage plants | Helen De Peyrecave | Elizabeth Eveleigh | – |
63 | Decorative Plaque for front of Hive. | Helen De Peyrecave | Elizabeth Eveleigh | Graham Eveleigh |