When you request your bees to dry out your frames for you, have you realised how much honey you (and they) are contributing to their winter stores? The answer is that a box of 11 wet extracted frames in a super contains about 1lb 4oz of honey. So if you ask your bees to dry out 3 supers, each with 11 wet frames, they will be adding nearly 4 lb of honey to to their winter stores. In other words, a full size colony, fed for winter, will increase its 40 lb of stores by about 10% from the wet frames. Or you could reduce the stores that you ensure they have (before drying out) from 40 lb to 36 lb (such precision!).
Don’t forget to tell your bees.
Look out for more exciting wax cappings data in the the December issue.
Surrey BKA Honey Show, Saturday 8th October This very pleasant event took place at Reigate Division’s Henfold Apiary and was enjoyed by all. Some of our members entered various items and a list of successes is give below. It is worth pointing out that there is a cup – The Vincent Challenge Cup – awarded to the Surrey Division that gains the most points. Weybridge came second in 2021 and again this year. There are some dedicated and extremely successful entrants from Reigate. This year they had 137 points to our 67, so there was a big gap between their first position and our second, but wouldn’t it be good to beat them? How about trying in 2023?
Results in alphabetical order of entrants: (VHC = Very Highly Commended C = Commended)
Geoff Cooper
VHC
Comb suitable for extraction
Marion Cooper
2nd
Honey biscuits
2nd
Lemon honey cake
3rd
Honey fruit cake
Lisa Davis
2nd
Honey & beeswax products
Andrew Halstead
1st
Two jars medium honey
VHC
Two jars set honey
Jane Hunter
3rd
Honey biscuits
3rd
Two beeswax candles
VHC
Honey fruit cake
VHC
Black and white photo
David Parker
1st
Two jars dark honey
1st
Two cut comb containers (Colman Cup)
3rd
Tow jars set honey
3rd
Composite display of four items
C
Comb suitable for extraction
National Honey Show, 27th – 29th October
Results for Weybridge Division in alphabetical order of entrants:
(VHC = Very Highly Commended C = Commended)
Geoff Cooper
2nd
Frame for extraction (Surrey member)
Marion Cooper
1st
Honey biscuits
1st
Container of liquid honey
2nd
Honey sultana and cherry cake
3rd
Skep
C
Date cake
Mather Cup (Surrey member with most points in National classes)
Andrew Halstead
VHC
Two jars set honey (Surrey member)
VHC
One jar light or medium honey (Surrey member)
Mark Hamilton
1st
Tow jars medium honey (Surrey member)
1st
One jar light/medium honey (Surrey member)
1st
Two containers cut comb, free from ling (Surrey member)
2nd
Two containers cut comb, free from ling (NHS class)
2nd
Two jars liquid honey (Surrey member)
3rd
Container of honey, free from ling (National class)
HC
One piece of beeswax (NHS class)
C
Six 28g beeswax blocks (Gift class)
Jonathan Kernan
1st
Two jars light honey (Open class)
(Mrs BW Hamlin cup – best in Classes 110-115)
1st
Two jars liquid honey (Surrey member) (Egerton Smythe cup)
2nd
Two jars liquid honey (Open class)
2nd
Two jars medium honey (Surrey member)
David Parker
1st
Frame for extraction (Surrey member) (Hood Chalice)
1st
Two jars dark honey (Surrey member)
2nd
Two containers cut comb, free from ling (Surrey member)
2nd
Two moulded candles (Surrey member)
VHC
Two containers cut comb, free from ling (NHS class)
Congratulations to us all! Please let me know of any errors or omissions and I will put corrections in the December Newsletter. Thanks to Marion for the time she spent in sifting this from multiple pages of information.