Aberdeen and District Beekeepers' Association (SCIO)

By Ian Mackley

About 30 members spent a congenial couple of hours tasting honey at the 2024 December social.  This was a repeat of the successful 2023 event and was again good fun. Thanks to the generosity of Member donors, we were able to taste 36 different honeys, four of them blind, from Europe, North Africa, SE Asia and Australasia.  There were a lot of happy people leaving the event but that of course could have been a sugar high!

We asked tasters to rate the honeys on a sliding scale between ‘Vile’ and ‘Ambrosia of the Gods’. Ranking tables were produced in three ways: by average score, by number and also percentage of either ‘ambrosia’ or ‘vile’ ratings.

• The top four honeys regardless of ranking method were, roughly in descending order: Aberdeenshire heather blend, two Aberdeenshire blossom honeys (respectively fourth and second in the Honey Show), and ling heather honey from the Association bees. French lavender, NZ Manuka and Croatian heather each made a single appearance depending on the method.
• The most disliked honeys regardless of method were Sumatran honey from ‘apis trigona’ and French sweet chestnut. Aldi 75p also appeared in all the bottom five regardless of method, and Aldi £3 organic acacia appeared in two methods. Curiously given that it appeared in one version of the top five honeys, NZ Manuka also appeared in one version of the bottom five honeys!

Here’s the full table ordered on average rating alone:

Floral Source	Country	No. of ‘vile’ ratings	No. of ‘Ambrosia of the Gods’ ratings	Total no. of ratings	Average rating (max. 5)
(Mystery 4) Aberdeenshire heather blend	Aberdeenshire		15	21	4.71
Summer blossom (lime?) Honey Show ’24 liquid light fourth place	Aberdeenshire		10	20	4.50
Lavender	France		4	21	4.14
(Mystery 1) Honey Show ’24 liquid light second place	Aberdeenshire		7	24	4.08
Association ling heather honey	Aberdeenshire	1	5	19	4.05
Ling	Denmark		4	16	3.81
Wildflower, thyme and conifers	Greece		2	16	3.69
Heather blend	Aberdeenshire		1	11	3.64
Lime	Poland		1	17	3.59
Blackberry	France	1	4	22	3.55
OSR	Aberdeenshire			14	3.43
Lavender	Tasmania		2	17	3.41
Heather	Croatia		4	15	3.40
Orange blossom	Spain  (Malaga region)		1	18	3.39
1000 Flowers	Spain  (Malaga region)		1	13	3.38
Mountain honey	Mallorca		1	12	3.33
Forest	Spain  (Malaga region)	2	3	16	3.31
Pine	Germany			17	3.29
Orange blossom	Morocco		1	15	3.20
Acacia	France			15	3.20
Meadow	France			17	3.18
Bell heather	Aberdeenshire	2	5	24	3.13
Honeydew	Poland			17	3.06
Eucalyptus	Mallorca		1	16	3.00
Unknown	France	1	1	13	3.00
Geven (Milk Vetch)	Turkey	1		14	2.86
Phacelia	?	1		16	2.75
Unknown	Denmark (Copenhagen)		1	14	2.71
(Mystery 3) Manuka	NZ	12	6	31	2.68
Unknown	Vietnam			15	2.60
Javanese forest	Indonesia	5		16	2.38
Floral	Sumatra	3		13	2.31
(Mystery 2) Aldi 75p	Aldi	12	1	27	2.22
Acacia (organic)	Aldi	4	1	11	2.09
From ‘trigona’ bees	Sumatra	12		18	1.67
Sweet Chestnut	France	17	2	23	1.52

What we learned about common beliefs about honey and the variety of people’s palates and preferences was again very interesting.

• It came across even more clearly this year that we seem to rate our own local honeys very highly. Is this familiarity, subconscious bias or something else? But we rate local honeys highly even when tasted blind, albeit that some have been prize-winning show honeys that one would hope would be highly rated.
• The cheap supermarket ‘probably not entirely honey’ honeys bear no comparison with more artisanal products and were poorly rated; the Aldi organic acacia rated poorly (2.09) against a locally bought French acacia honey (3.20) and both Aldi’s 75p honey and £3 organic Acacia were very near the bottom of the ratings table. ‘Organic’ does not imply ‘tastes better’!
• Whilst some honeys attracted tightly consistent rating and comment, views sometimes varied widely, illustrating the differences in people’s palates. Manuka is the outstanding example. On average its rating was well down the table, suggesting that on the whole it is disliked but that conceals quite a lot of ‘ambrosia’ ratings. In fact nine honeys got both at least one vile and one ambrosia rating. Even the ‘worst in show’, the almost universally disliked French sweet chestnut honey with 17 ‘vile’ ratings attracted two ‘ambrosia’ ratings and apparently a few people liked the generally wince-inducing Sumatran trigona honey.
• Honeys of the same floral source but from different countries were broadly in the same parts of the tables but French lavender was preferred to Tasmanian lavender and Spanish orange blossom preferred to the Moroccan equivalent.
• In comparison with 2023, this year’s Aldi 75p (av. 2.22) was rated marginally worse than 2023’s Tesco 75p (2.50).  Moroccan orange blossom was almost identically rated (3.20 vs 3.24), but the same jar of Javanese Forest was near the top in 2023 (3.67) but near the bottom in 2024 (2.38). One assumes it has probably gone off in some way.

By Graham Torrie

Written an astonishing 414 years ago, Charles Butler’s book, The Feminine
Monarchie, tells us this about our honey bees: that they labour “under the
government of one monarch, of whom above all things they have a principal care
and respect, loving, reverencing, and obeying her in all things.” All the more
wonderful, then, that we hobby beekeepers are able to produce these amazing
creatures at a time of our choosing, for very little cost and with a modest degree of
expertise. In doing so, we can improve our stocks in qualities such as disease resistance, increase in honey yield, temperament, and reduced swarming.

Continue reading “Queen rearing for the hobby beekeeper” →

Tuesday 17 January, 7.30 pm, online via Zoom.

Honey fraud is the third biggest food fraud in the world. This fascinating talk lifts the lid on the how, why and wherefore of honey fraud and adulteration, and the way that it impacts on the livelihoods of beekeepers around the world. We will also take a look at what is happening in the UK.

About the Speaker: Lynne Ingram has kept bees for over 30 years, and runs 15-20 colonies in Somerset. She is a Master beekeeper, holds the National Diploma in Beekeeping, and is an examiner for the BBKA written and practical exams. Lynne is involved in educating beekeepers in Somerset, running study groups and curating the popular Somerset Lecture series.

This is a members-only event. See the January Newsletter for the Zoom link.

If you’re not a member, and wish to join the ADBKA, please see the Membership page – here.

Thursday, 8 December 2022 at 7pm – Kinellar Hall, Fintray Rd, Blackburn, Aberdeen

Vital information for the wellbeing of your overwintering colonies and their ongoing health, and your honey harvest!

5 November 2022
09:30 – 16:30
TECA Hilton Hotel, East Burn Road, Stoneywood, Aberdeen AB21 9FX

Booking: Eventbrite

A fascinating day is in prospect at this year’s members’ convention. The UK’s largest bee farmer, Murray McGregor, will talk about his life in beekeeping, and will highlight some of the differences in approach between hobbyists and professionals. Many members have previously visited Murray at his base in Coupar Angus or at one of his out-apiaries, and others have improved their stocks by purchasing “Jolanta’s queens”. Our second speaker is well known local beekeeper, Stephen Palmer, who will talk about the challenges of beekeeping in Aberdeenshire’s ‘arable desert’, and also about some of the special equipment that he has found useful in his 40 years’ practice of the craft. The day will be rounded off with a panel discussion, a quiz and a prize draw – the full programme will be available shortly. This is an opportunity to get together and discuss beekeeping with like-minded friends and experts in comfortable surroundings – the event will take place from 09:30 till 16:30 at the TECA Hilton hotel which is located beside the new P&J Live Conference Centre in Dyce. The Convention will cost £30 to attend. This rate is being subsidised by the Association, and includes lunch, refreshments throughout the day, and parking. It would help the committee if those wishing to attend could book early, so that numbers can be managed. To book your place please use this link to the Eventbrite system.