HBKA HONEY SHOW
27th September 2026
To take place at The Raptor Foundation, The Heath, St Ives Road, Woodhurst, PE28 3BT.
We are delighted to announce that this year’s Honey Show will take place at the Raptor Foundation, St Ives, PE28 3BT
Timings will be as follows
10:00am – 12:00pm – open for receipt of entries
12:00pm – 4:00pm – open to everyone, during which time judging of the various classes will take place. Entries should not be removed before 3:00pm.
As well as the different honey classes, there will be classes for bees wax, baked honey goods, mead, photography and crafts. A complete list of the classes is attached to the entry form which can be downloaded.
Members can bring their honey to sell. Suggested price is 8 oz jar £6.50, 12 oz jar £9.50 and 1lb jar £12.00 – the slight discount is to encourage the sale of larger jars.
Bee1st beekeeping equipment suppliers will be attending and Members can order items in advance from them by emailing sales@bee1st.co.uk or calling 07889 112399.
HBKA Members will be able to enjoy a discounted entry to the Raptor Centre on the day, entry to the Honey Show is free.
The Centre has a large car park and free parking is available. There are also disabled parking spaces available.
When bringing your entries, follow the sign to Reception which will direct you through to The Barn. Your entries should be taken to the Secretary’s table where they will be labelled for display and you will be given an individual entry number.
Members will be given identification stickers that will be needed if you wish to take advantage of the discounted entry to the Bird displays.
Please ensure you complete an entry form to hand into the show secretary with your entries. Further information about specific classes will be published on the web site to help identify classes that are of interest to you so keep checking for updates.
We will need people to assist with both setting up and clearing away at the end of the day, so if you are able to lend a hand it will be much appreciated.
Please email events@huntsbka.org.uk if you are able to lend a hand at either end of the day – setting up will begin at 9:00 am.
Members can bring along their own Honey to sell at the show. In order to help the volunteers who will be manning the sales table, a uniform price has been set of £6.50 for an 8 oz jar, £9.50 for a 12 oz jar and £12.00 for a 1lb jar. If you would like to sell your honey, we would ask that you also supply a small labelled jar for buyers to have a taste. The honey tasting was very popular with the public at last year’s show and really got those jars moving.
Payment will be made to you after the show and will be a couple of days later, as our Treasurer has to reconcile the sales and as payment are also made by credit card it can take a couple of days to sort out all the payments.
This class (Shallow comb suitable for extraction) is a great one to enter if you have a particularly beautiful frame of capped honey. It does require a display case for the frame and we have 5 cases available that members can borrow should they wish to enter this category. Please email events@hbkahunts.org.uk to reserve a case. Alternatively, many beekeeping equipment suppliers sell display cases to buy. If you are handy at woodwork, there are a lot of youtube videos that give instructions on how to make a case. Get your requests in early if you would like to reserve a case and meanwhile keep your chosen frame in the fridge or freezer to prevent any damage to the capping! The “tips for entries” has a section on this class which tells you what the judges will be looking for.
If you don’t have your own bees (and even if you do), this class may be the one for you.
Entries can be any craft, painting needlework, woodwork, crochet, knitting, anything really that is bee themed and hand made.
I have added a knitting pattern here in case there are any keen knitters out there that fancy a little project to have a go at.
If you can’t open or download the pattern, just email events@huntsbka.org.uk and I will email it to you separately.
There are very good facilities at the Raptor Foundation. There is a café selling hot and cold drinks and light meals and snacks. Toilets are located through the reception area and the reception also houses the Raptor Centre gift shop, so with so much on offer this year, it’s worth making The Honey Show a full day out.