So, a week later and all the buzz from Harrow-in-Leaf 2014 has died away.

Despite the heavy rain on the Monday (it was Bank Holiday – what did we expect??) I think a good time was had by all.

Nascot Wood Bees – in the form of Doreen – entered no less than 17 classes, ranging from honey to poetry, candles to cakes. The “highlights” were sharing joint first in the “display” class (see our earlier post ), getting “best candle” for the moulded, twisted candles, and receiving “people’s choice” award for the “Shakespeare” display (though nothing to do with bees or honey!)

People’s choice display – William Shakespeare 

The hoped-for prize for mead didn’t materialise but prizes were won in all the honey classes, as well as “other food incorporating honey” (figs in honey), beeswax polish, and the poem.

We were at the show both days, (well, you have to be really to setup and take down) but spent plenty of time enjoying the displays, helping out with stewarding and sales – and not a little time capturing the myriad of local bees who also chose to “visit” the show. These got a little out-of-hand at times, with some managing to get into the display frames and robbing honey, others getting drunk on dribbles of mead from where bottles had been opened for judging. However, whilst they came back in as quickly as they were ejected, as far as I know no-one came to harm – either bee or human.

When people hear we’re beekeepers, one of the questions that sometimes comes up is “why keep bees, apart from the honey?”  Well, there are lots of things we get from bees aside from honey. And this fact is celebrated each year with a class at the Harrow-in-Leaf show, the “products of the hive” display. This is judged on artistic presentation of at least six products from the beehive; nothing’s tasted, nothing’s measured, it’s just about how the display looks. Some competitors concentrate on pure visual effect, and the results can be stunning; but each year we try and come up with a theme, something that tells a story. Last year we did Winnie-the-Pooh’s picnic; this year it seemed appropriate to theme it around the centenary of the start of the Great War.

We needed at least six different products, and we thought of 4 or 5 pretty easily; thereafter it gets a little harder, but here are the ten that we came up with that we could represent in the display:

1. Honey dressings (honey has healing and antiseptic qualities that are sometimes used in trauma cases)
2. Foot cream (great for trench-foot)
3. Lip-balm
4. Wax polish (really good for wood, but can also be used on leather)
5. Honey-and-oat cookies
6. Jar of honey
7. Wax candle
8. Block of wax
9. Berry-and-honey vinegar (great for sore throats – when diluted!)
10. Mead

So these were our items, and they were to be presented with a WWI theme, but how to link them together? We came up with the idea of a “package from home” and found a rough canvas bag that looked vaguely military, but the story needed strengthening so we decided to write a “letter from home”. We found a photograph of a beekeeper collecting a swarm into a skep from 1914, so that was to be worked into the story too. I wanted the letter to be believable and refer to real events, so started a little Googling, and very quickly came across the story of Private John Parr. We worked some details into the letter and combined it with the above list of products. As we researched more, we found just one personal tragedy out of hundreds of thousands, made all the more poignant because John Parr’s home was less than 10 miles from Harrow, and we were writing the letter on the 100th anniversary of his death.

John Henry Parr, from North Finchley, is believed to be the first British soldier killed by enemy action in the Great War. He was shot, thought to have been on a reconnaissance mission on 21^st August 1914, when he was aged just 17, the youngest of eleven siblings. His body was never returned to England, and it was after the war that his mother, Alice, was notified of his death. They continued to write to him until that time.

The story was so powerful we felt it needed telling, so as a postscript to the display added a printed note, the paragraph above, to the front of the display. There was no evidence that any of John’s family were beekeepers, and we did put this disclaimer on the display. We hope that visitors will have been both touched by the story of John and his family, and learn a little more about the uses of honey and other products of the hive. Because in our 10 products we’ve only scratched the surface; as well as honey, the rarer substances of propolis, royal jelly and bee venom have remarkable properties … maybe the subject of a future blog.

P.S. The judges must have been impressed by what they saw, as we were thrilled to share first prize and the cup!

Receiving the cup

The winning entries

North Finchley

21st August 1914

Dearest John,

We pray this small parcel reaches you safe and finds you in good health. Your father and I, and all your brothers and sisters, miss you dreadfully but are so proud of you. It must seem a million miles away from North Middlesex. Your old boss the butcher took this photograph of your father collecting that swarm earlier this year, before the war started. We’ve been busy and all the following are made with produce from the hive:

Your Mother, with all of my love.

During a routine inspection of our hives at the apiary yesterday morning, the Queen was found on the hive floor. She was expired, bereft of life, shuffled off this mortal coil, resting in peace; in short, an ex-Queen.

Now these things happen occasionally; bees – even queens – aren’t immortal after all. It was particularly bad timing, however, in the run-up to Harrow-in-Leaf and the many preparations still to be made for that show. With no sign of any new queen cells it did, however, present an opportunity for a job that’s been on the cards for a while. We had a nuc-box (a half-size colony) of bees in the garden that were waiting for combining with a larger hive. It was queen-right and, though large for the nuc box it was in, too small to over-winter confidently. (Yes, it’s only August, but this is the time to prepare the colonies for winter!)

So on return from the orchard the frames from the nuc were moved into a full-size brood box, and come dusk were carefully taped up and driven to the orchard. There, the two brood boxes were placed on top of each other, with a couple of sheets of newspaper between. Doing this introduces the colonies to each other gently; they become accustomed to the sounds and smells of the other and are less likely to be aggressive once they finally eat through the paper and the colonies unite.  We normally move bees at dusk; late enough that virtually all the flying bees have returned to the hive (we don’t want them coming back to the hive location and finding their home has gone) but early enough that there’s still enough light for us to work safely.

Time will tell how successful the combination will be; and also why the queen died in the first place. She’s currently safely in the freezer for later post-mortem examination…

Harrow in Leaf

Just over a week to go before Harrow in Leaf and the tension is mounting…  every year we seem to enter more classes. Some of the entries can be prepared in advance, but there will always be lots that has to be left to the weekend itself.

Meanwhile every available space at home is filling up with jars, display frames, bottles, candles and much more besides. (I could tell you what but, before the show, then I’d have to kill you.)