It was by far the hottest show we have ever had a stand at, so I made the decision that it would heat stress bees in an observation hive. We therefore displayed a 'virtual' observation hive containing a video of close-up shots of bees, playing on a tablet computer. This went down well with the visitors, and meant that we could guarantee what they were going to see (there were some great shots of a bee chewing out of the cell and then climbing out .. after being trodden on by her sisters several times). Thanks to Matt Vivian for filming and preparing the video.
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| Virtual Observation Hive |
As usual we had honey tasting on the stand. Out of interest I counted the sticks in the bin afterwards. We supplied 233 'tastes' (probably more because some people used both ends of the same stick for a taste of two different honeys).
Honey sales went well. James Lowe's soft set honey was by far the best seller, showing that effort in preparing honey results in better sales.
This year we shared our stand again with David Evans and his wife from Bees Abroad. They also had a successful day, making contacts and publicising the charity.
Thanks again to everyone who helped out at the stand. It makes a huge difference having more people on the stand as it gives us time to engage with visitors for longer. I personally spoke to several people who were interested in taking up beekeeping and potentially joining our winter beginners course, so the stand was useful in promoting beekeeping and NEWBKA.
Next NEWBKA stand will be at Animals R Magic on 22nd July. Please let the NEWBKA secretary know if you would be interested in helping out. I hope that the volunteers yesterday can confirm that it is actually quite fun talking to people about bees!