For the past 14 years, ever since I’ve been a beekeeper, at the end of October, I’ve visited The National Honey Show, which takes place at Sandown Park Racecourse in Esher. It’s a beekeeper and wannabe beekeeper’s Aladdins Cave.  Packed to the gunnels with everything one could ever need/desire/nay demand in order to maintain your hobby or business!  Walk through the doors and feel the buzz when you see beehives galore, in all their different shapes and sizes.  Keep going and gleaming new pieces of equipment will beckon you to come and look, leaving you wondering how on earth you’ve managed to keep bees without them. Bee suits hang in all the colours of a rainbow tempting you to buy a new one while whispering in your ear ‘ go on…you know you want to!’  Glass jars stand like soldiers urging you to be bold and brave and try a different shape for next years’ yield. Further on, wax candles and moulds will draw you in like a moth to the flame; I never knew you could make a wax candle in the shape of a VW Camper van!   Lip balms, moisturisers, soaps and remedies -for anything you can think of - will play with your sense of smell, all made from the extracts of pollen, honey, wax and propolis and designed to make you feel that little bit more fabulous than you already are and sleep a tad better than perhaps you already do or don’t.  An array of wild flower seeds invite you to tempt the wild bees into your garden and gin, mead, wine and champagne, are there to wet your appetite and help make your Christmas spirits positively sparkle.  Books shout out to you, from their pages; fact, fiction and fabulous photographic books all about our wonderful, honourable bees.

To the side of the show an exhibition of all the beekeepers hard efforts throughout the year stands quietly.  Endless rows of jars filled with the purest of honey in every shade imaginable. Succulent honeycomb cut to precision, wax, purified and cleaned till it shines brighter than the tables it may be used to clean and creative crafts take your breath away displaying the impressive and various skills of devoted and competitive beekeepers!

If that’s not enough, on the first floor are lectures about everything from Global Beekeeping to Saving our Insects.  And workshops, who wouldn’t want to go to “Mead Making from Start to Drinking” or “Sustainable Planting for Honeybees?”

You don’t have to be a beekeeper to enjoy The National Honey Show, but I can bet your bottom dollar you’ll leave wanting to be one! I became a beekeeper quite by accident and now look, I don’t just go to the honey show, I have my own stand selling the children’s books I’ve written about the honeybees. 

Honeybees are lliterally ife changing.  Where would we be without them?   Being with them and understanding how they live and work changes the way you think and operate.  I know, for sure, they’ve changed my life and I cannot thank them enough.

The images above are a combination of pictures taken at The National Honey Show 2019 & 2022

“When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.”  (Arab Proverb)