Honey Show is the bee’s knees for visiting judge
ANY fears that disease and Asian hornets may have caused Guernsey’s bees a problem this year were allayed when the annual honey show attracted more entries than last year.
With 140 items entered across the classes, UK judge Sue Carter had plenty to see and taste.
Beekeepers’ Association president Michael Paine said that the hot dry summer had suited the bees.
‘They don’t like the wet,’ he said.
While it was hard to tell for sure, he said it seemed that the population of bees in the island was getting bigger. ‘We’ve gone through a programme of queen rearing, which is the most important element.’
France, Italy and the south of England have all had problems with queens and the number of colonies over the last year. So serious was the situation in France that beekeepers who made a living from their hives went to the government to ask for subsidies.
‘We’ve also been concerned about the availability of pollen, the availability of nectar, and disease and have been working with the Pollinator Project who’ve taken away a load of honey to a university in the UK,’ said Mr Paine.
The university is gathering samples of honey from all over the UK and the islands and analysing it to see if there are any impurities, such as chemicals, in it.
A report on the findings could be available before the end of the year.
This was Ms Carter’s first visit to the island’s show and she said she was involved in about 20 each year.
As well as judging an array of honey in jars, she also looked at the baked goods and the items made from wax, one of which particularly impressed her – a plate of delicate wax leaves made by an 11-year-old girl by coating real leaves in wax and carefully peeling it off.
‘I’ve never seen anything like it before,’ said Mrs Carter, who awarded the entry a first prize.
