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Young Beekeeper Photo Competition Winner

MADDIE MOATE FRONTS FIRST BEEKEEPING CHALLENGE ON BRITISH TV IN NEW BBC SERIES, SHOW ME THE HONEY! 

picture with permission of the BBC 

Show Me the Honey! follows wanna-be beekeepers as they learn everything there is to know about caring for a hive.

With BAFTA-winning presenter and bee enthusiast, Maddie Moate, at the helm, the 7 x 30’ series follows four families from across the UK on their beekeeping, honey-making adventure.

Bees have been busily making delicious honey for what could be as many as 100 million years and evidence suggests that humans have been keeping bees for 9000 years.

 The CBBC series will capture all the ups and downs of beekeeping – from the joy of receiving their hive, bees and suits, through to the tribulations of maintaining a hive, up to its climactic final harvest.

Beekeeping is a brilliant process full of natural jeopardy; there’s months and months of love, care and attentiveness involved – building to that all-important moment – have they actually produced any honey?

The families won’t have to go it alone though – as well as Maddie they’ll have beekeeping expert, Curtis Thompson, on standby to give advice and lend a hand throughout the process.

Each week Maddie and Curtis will put them through their paces in Bee School where they will learn about topics such as the worker bees’ ‘waggle dance’, insect vision and bee surveys.

There is also the Weekly Challenge. These challenges include building a solitary bee B&B, creating a pollen paradise, and designing logos for their honey. Families will go head to head in challenges at home to win a ‘Golden Bee’ to proudly adorn their hive with.

The Hive – the show’s very own social media platform – will allow the teams to collaborate, share their experiences and bee keeping travails, ask questions of their beekeeping mentors and create their own beekeeping community.

There will be interesting bee facts and each week Maddie will also present a film delving deeper into the many incredible characteristics bees possess, highlighting the role they play in the food chain and touching on wider messages around the environment and conservation.

Throughout the series, which is the very first Beekeeping Challenge on British TV, a host of celebrities will encourage the beekeepers on their journey.

Maddie, who kept bees as a child, says: “We all love honey and bees are vital to our eco-system, now more than ever. With green fingers and sticky hands, we want to inspire the next generation of eco-conscious youngsters to get outside, support our precious pollinators, and maybe even encourage them to try their hand at beekeeping with a local expert.”

Ultimately, the beekeepers will be striving to be crowned the ‘Beekeeper of the Year’ by producing the best and sweetest tasting honey. Judges will include chef, Ainsley Harriott, who will be creating a celebratory dish with the winner’s honey, before they take home a special Show Me The Honey trophy.

The different environments of the beekeepers’ homes across the UK each provide their own unique challenges to our budding apiarists, from weather conditions to whether they have neighbours to consider. The honey they produce is literally a product of its environment too.

Curtis says: “Honey produced in an inner-city environment, which tends to have high variety of flowers, will taste very different from a countryside honey where the bees may have been exclusively visiting one crop such as heather. So it will be interesting to see who comes out on top, the city, suburban , or countryside teams?”

Show Me the Honey! is made by Interstellar TV for CBBC and will air on CBBC and BBC iPlayer in September.

Award winning presenter and beekeeper, Maddie Moate, helped by beekeeping expert Curtis Thompson, will be hosting a new series with young beekeepers and their families, including new Scottish YB, Harry.

above, Maddie with the Show me the Honey trophy and below Maddie and Curtis with the contestants warming up for their beekeeping challenge

pictures with permission of the BBC

Ready, Steady to watch this new beekeeping challenge series on

     Thursday 30th September, 5.30pm to 6.00pm

on CBBC and BBC iPlayer

          Maddie and Harry    pictures L McLellan

            Follow the fun and Harry’s progress over the next few weeks.

     Good luck Harry!