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  1. Royal Agricultural Society of NSW
  2. Sydney Royal Competitions
  3. Competitions
  4. National Honey
National Honey
National Honey

Apiculture, or honey, was first judged by the Agricultural Society in 1888 although honeybees arrived in the new colony in 1822 aboard the ship Isabella in order to provide the new settlers with one more comfort from home. Indigenous people harvested sugarbag honey from native Australian bees long before the European honeybees arrived, but it wasn’t until 2019 native honey began to attract new interest and joined the competition.

Today the Sydney Royal National Honey Show is one of Australia’s most prestigious honey competitions and the only one awarding gold, silver and bronze medals. Launched in 2010 the competition also assesses candles, beeswax, pollen and mead alongside chunk, comb, liquid, natural granulated and creamed honey.

Championship Judging

Championship Judging

Championship judging at the Sydney Royal National Honey Show is conducted using the Borda Count method. Where a Champion Award is listed for a category of classes, the first placed gold medal winners of the relevant classes (if any) are retained and put forward for judging at the end of a category or at the end of class judging for the day. If there are no first place or gold medals, a Champion will not be awarded. The three judges from the National Honey Show sections (Candles/Beeswax, Open and Small Producers) make up the panel of judges who will participate in the Championship judging. Each judge will be presented with a single ballot card and instructed to complete according to the traditional Borda Count method. The Borda Count method is a consensus-based single-winner election method in which voters rank eligible exhibits in order of preference. The Borda count determines the winner of an election by giving each exhibit a number of points corresponding to the position in which it is ranked by each voting judge. The number of points given to exhibits for each ranking is determined by the number of exhibits up for judging. Where there are n exhibits, votes are counted by giving each exhibit a number of points equal to the number of exhibits ranked lower than them, so that an exhibit receives n – 1 points for a first preference, n – 2 for a second, and so on, with zero points for being ranked last. For example, if there are five exhibits being judged, then an exhibit will receive four (4) points each time they are ranked first, three (3) for being ranked second, two (2) points for being ranked third, one (1) point for being ranked fourth and zero (0) points for the exhibit ranked last. The points assigned for the preferences expressed by a voting judge on a ballot paper would look like this: 1st Ranking 1 Exhibit Forumla: (N-1) Points: 4 5th Ranking 5 Exhibit Forumla: (N-5) Points: 0 2nd Ranking 2 Exhibit Forumla: (N-2) Points: 3 4th Ranking 4 Exhibit Forumla: (N-4) Points: 1 3rd Ranking 3 Exhibit Forumla: (N-3) Points: 2 Once all votes have been counted, the exhibit with the most points is awarded the Champion exhibit. This result is not released to the judges and is held until the agreed press release date.

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Bush Telegraph

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