All A-Flutter at the Great Yorkshire Show 2026

Well, that's another one under our belt. Well done to everyone who helped with the planning back in March and June, the set-up on Sunday 12 July, the four days of presenting from Tuesday to Friday, and the pack-up on the Friday afternoon. It's a real team effort to pull off, and I think we did YBKA, and our visitors, proud once again.

When the Look North camera crew turned up on Tuesday with presenter Amy Garcia, our efforts reached an even wider audience this year. You might have caught the coverage yourselves. Amy was game enough to pull on a bee suit and step into the caged area for a demonstration of bee handling from Tony Jefferson, with Derrie O'Sullivan assisting. She popped into the Normanby Pavilion later to see some of our other displays too.

This year's theme was forage and pollination. The promised Wildflower Walkways were a bit of a washout thanks to the weather, but we made up for it with posters on seasonal planting, a lovely indoor display of perennial plants, a mini water source for foraging insects, handouts on the different bees you might spot in your garden, and a short video on honey bee foraging behaviour. Plenty of visitors wanted to talk about autumn and winter planting. I did notice one group taking a real shine to the Wildflower Walkway, though: the local rabbits, tucking in most mornings before the gates opened.

We were back again this year with information on the Yellow-Legged Asian Hornet and the risk it poses to our native insects. With sightings continuing to come in from Europe, and confirmation this year of an established population here in the UK, it really matters that we keep raising awareness and encourage people, beekeepers included, to download the Asian Hornet Watch app and report anything they see. This is the third year we've run this part of the display, and public interest and willingness to get involved was the strongest yet. One visitor thanked us for what he'd learned last year and told us he'd used the app to report three possible sightings since. None of his photos turned out to be YLAH, thankfully, but he was pleased the system worked, and he went home with a copy of our ID quiz sheet to sharpen his hornet-spotting skills.

We also tackled another problem facing beekeepers this year: the worldwide issue of commercial honey adulteration. Visitors could take a blind taste test between a cheap supermarket "fake honey" (74p, if you can believe it) and an artisan honey from Tony's own bees in North Yorkshire.

As always, the indoor display of beekeeping equipment and the outdoor observation hive drew plenty of interest, giving visitors a proper look into how a honey bee colony works together. It's rewarding, and honestly a bit humbling, to share something new with people and get such genuine thanks back for it. Not bad, considering everything else the showground has on offer.

So that's it until next year. If you'd like to join the team for 2027, keep an eye out for a call for volunteers later this year. It's hard work, not least putting up with my bossiness, but it's worth every bit of it.

Linda Schofield