Local honey show really is the bee's knees

Hunstanton Town Hall 'all a buzz' for weekend bee exhibition and honey show.

I'm a big honey fan, so the bee exhibition in Hunstanton is a chance to learn more about the insects.

At the door there's a live hive, and as we search for the queen, Lee Stevens, who's been a beekeeper for 4 years, tells me peak season they'll be around 60 thousand bees in a colony, the queen laying up to 2 thousand eggs a day.

Inside there's a vast selection of honey and tables where you can taste the different types.  Sue's just finished a taste test and is buying a few jars, "What's not to like about it. I drizzle it on my yoghurt and fruit in the morning."

This free event has been run for more than a hundred years by West Norfolk & King's Lynn Beekeepers' Association.

Keepers are showing visitors how the honey's extracted and talking through the various jobs they have.   Who knew there's a dancing one (not me anyway).

"When the scout bees go out they'll come back and do a dance," says Richard Lee, "The speed they do it says how far away the nectar is and the angle gives them the direction.  It's called a waggle dance.  They all work for the good and the survival of the colony."

"It's a fascinating hobby", Richard adds, "There's always something to learn. The more you know, the more there is to know."

There're jars being judged, of varied colours, which is where I meet Jill Tinsey, who's kept bees for 30 years.  "The colour depends on what flowers the bees have been working, so something that's very light could be borage and something that's very dark could be chestnut or honeydew."

There are also wax products, cakes, mead and bee photographs winning prizes.

"It's a great hobby, but it's dependent on so many things," says Adam Bartholomew, who's in charge of the taste tests, "You can get nice bees and you can get some horrible bees.  I'm fascinated by it all, I just think the whole thing is amazing how the insects collect the nectar in and you get something at the end of it."   

I ask if he gets stung a lot, "Quite a bit - but it's part of the course."

Sitting having some honey cake and tea is Stuart Grant, one of the association's ex presidents, who says, "At one point I had 29 hives and produced over a tonne of honey one year!  When you go to a hive, and you lift off the lid, and you've got nice bees, and you see what goes on in a hive - the way they organise themselves, it just absorbs me."

Perhaps it's something I'll take up in the future.  For now though I'm thinking about the West Norfolk set honey I've just bought and the toast I'll have it on later.