March 24, 2026

Bonus – Introducing Stephanie Slater: Honey Shows and Judging

In this short episode, we introduce Stephanie Slater and preview a new recurring segment focused on honey shows and judging.

Stephanie joins the Beekeeping Today Podcast to share her background in beekeeping, with particular experience in participating in and judging honey shows. This area of beekeeping—often overlooked by many—plays an important role in evaluating honey quality, presentation, and craftsmanship.

In this introduction, Stephanie discusses her involvement in honey shows and offers a glimpse into what goes into judging entries, from visual appearance to handling and preparation. Her experience provides a unique perspective that connects everyday beekeeping practices with standards used in competition and evaluation.

This episode sets the stage for a new monthly series where Stephanie will explore honey shows in greater depth—helping listeners understand how to participate, what judges look for, and how to improve their hive products.

Whether you’ve entered a honey show before or are simply curious, this short opens the door to a deeper look at one of the more specialized and rewarding aspects of beekeeping.

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Brought to you by Betterbee – your partners in better beekeeping.

Betterbee is the presenting sponsor of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com

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We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments in the show notes of this episode or: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com

Thank you for listening!

Podcast music: Be Strong by Young Presidents; Epilogue by Musicalman; Faraday by BeGun; Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus; A Fresh New Start by Pete Morse; Wedding Day by Boomer; Christmas Avenue by Immersive Music; Red Jack Blues by Daniel Hart; Bolero de la Fontero by Rimsky Music; Perfect Sky by Graceful Movement; Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott.

Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

** As an Amazon Associate, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases

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Welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast Shorts, your quick dive into the latest buzz in beekeeping.

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In 20 minutes or less, we'll bring you one important story, keeping you informed and up to date.

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No fluff, no fillers.

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Just the news you need.

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Brought to you by Better Bee, your partners in Better Beekeeping.

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Hey everybody, welcome to this special short.

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We have some fun

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Information to share with you.

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It's not just fun information.

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This is like a this is like a gift to our listeners, I think.

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It's a long-term listener gift.

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especially those beekeepers who are excited about honey.

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Yeah, we invited Stephanie on to talk to us about the new series she's going to be doing for us here on Beekeeping Today podcast

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Thank you, Jeff and Becky, for having me.

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I am so excited to have an opportunity to speak to your listeners once a month.

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about honey shows, judging, the art of exhibiting, and maybe some tips and tricks on how to avoid some of those sticky situations you can get into at honey shows.

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Sticky situations.

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You've seen my my my jar entries then.

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Oh no.

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I may or may not have Jeff

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Well this will be exciting.

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So we've had you on the show as a guest a couple of times talking about well at different shows and you were there judging or helping with the right thing.

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with a sh uh uh the honey show.

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And and we found that you know this is a topic that's really not discussed too often and and you have a wealth of information experience.

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And not only on shows and judging, but you know, the preparing of the honey, but also you keep bees.

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And I think you there you have information that could help in that vein for the shows or for honey itself.

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I do.

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So I started keeping these about 10 years ago.

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And then I entered my first honey show in 2019 at the Wisconsin State Fair.

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I had no idea what I was doing, but with a little bit of dumb luck, I got a second place there.

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But I got feedback from the judge.

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And then I was able to improve an entry and a couple months later go and exhibit at my very first American Beekeeping Federation, American Honey Show.

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And I got a second place there.

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Again, major dumb luck, but then I was hooked, right?

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And so then I was just constantly looking for ways to improve or how to

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properly exhibit and how to make it look like I knew what I was doing.

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And so I've I've uh I've I've picked the brains of some of my fellow competitors, I've taken some training, I've

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gone to conferences just to check out their honey show sometimes, just so that I can improve as a competitor.

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And you're not just a beekeeper, not just a competitor, but you are a judge.

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Which sounds scary, but it's really not, is it Stephanie?

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It's not scary at all.

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It's a ton of fun.

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And it's a whole new group of friends that I've met

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And so uh I can't remember a few years ago, I attended a conference that had an introductory judge training through the American Honey Show Training Council.

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And of course at that time my focus was, ooh, I bet I could learn some tricks on how to be a better competitor if I'm learning about being a judge.

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Well, by the end of the eight hour day

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I d I learned that there were no certified honey judges through the council in my state of Wisconsin.

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And if I were to finish, I would be the first.

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So challenge accepted

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And so in 2023, I did become the first certified honey judge through the American Honey Show Training Council in the state of Wisconsin.

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The American Honey Show Council.

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American Honey Show Training Council.

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Training Council

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I missed the training part.

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It's a mouthful, yes.

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Is is there is that associated with any international organization?

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So are you cross-certified?

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Could you go and judge in the UK say because they have the big national honey show

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So when the American Honey Show Training Council started, its roots come from the Welsh program that comes from Ireland

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And although I don't probably have any reciprocity, it might open a door for me to be able to go and maybe help with a honey show.

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somewhere else as a steward and maybe prove what I'm capable of and perhaps judge in the future.

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So it's it's not a reciprocity agreement per se, but I think it um might open some opportunities for me if if they came about.

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Stephanie, what I remember most about our conversations about honey competitions and and the honey shows is is one that

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It's it's really, I know you say it's easy, but there's there's a lot of preparation that goes into it.

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You don't say that it's easy, but you say that everybody can do it.

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I think that's that may be your message.

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But

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You're you've shared some amazing hints and suggestions in in just really the short period of time that we've talked to you over a few different episodes.

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And so

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Are you like what's your plan?

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Are you just going to share all of the secrets in in this series?

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Are you are you like really going to just put it all out there so everybody can do it?

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And

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it it we're gonna have like honey shows that are overwhelmingly filled with submissions.

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Is that the plan?

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I love that goal to have honey shows overwhelmed with submissions.

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So you're right.

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I do believe that everyone can do it.

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And if you want to do it, we as a whole, like all the honey show exhibitors, can help you achieve that.

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There is a lot of work and there is a lot of attention to detail, but so is beekeeping.

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So if that

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is something that motivates you, the competition, and believe me, it's more camaraderie.

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We're we're not cutthroat competitors.

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We talk to each other.

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We're friends.

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We congratulate each other when

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when we do well, um then I would like to share some of that information with everyone so that if it's a if it's a goal of theirs to compete

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that they can walk in the door feeling confident about what they've brought and they can feel good about the results that they received at the show.

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I was wondering for for not only the competition for the uh the contestants, but will you be able to offer help for the clubs and the organizations?

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who are wanting to put on a better honey show, put on one that's exceptional, as opposed to a you know, your regular conference table with a white cloth on it and a bunch of jars scattered around on it.

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Is there a better way to present honey?

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I think that's a great suggestion, Jeff.

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And I've already added that to my to-do list and make sure that that is a future short topic on how to put on a good honey show.

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Thank you for the suggestion.

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Stephanie, I okay, I've I've never seen a happier beekeeper it from hobbyist to commercial beekeeper to than a beekeeper who's just received

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a blue ribbon or one of those other fancy ribbons that are awarded at the shows.

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So it it's a really fun, happy group of people.

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Are are there ways for people who are entering in honey shows, are there are there opportunities for them to connect and to talk other than actually at those honey shows?

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Is there any like online

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Facebook group or or any kind of of way for these beekeepers to ask questions, talk to each other, um, uh anything like that.

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The American Honey Show Training Council does have a Facebook group.

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It's called the Honey Show Discussion Group.

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And lots of people have joined that.

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And some of us might put out questions about, hey, how do you prepare this entry?

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I've never done it before.

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Or, hey, does anybody have the results from XYZ show?

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And so it really can cover a variety of discussion topics.

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based on who's in that particular group.

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So I encourage anyone to go ahead and join and interact more with your fellow competitors.

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Lots of us honey judges are on there too

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Do you have to show proof of a previous w ribbon in order to get into that group?

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No, it's pretty easy to get in that group.

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I'm pretty sure if you ask me to go to the group.

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You may, Becky, you may, yes.

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And and and then I have another question.

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What if a listener has a specific question for you?

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Is that something you'd be able to entertain in this series?

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I think that would be so much fun.

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And I would love to hear from listeners.

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I would love to receive questions.

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And there might be some opportunities for people to send in photographs of their great entries or their awards so that we can celebrate that.

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Yeah, we can set up a page on the Beekeeping Today website and and and make it the Honey Show page or the we'll we'll s Stephanie's Stephanie's page or something.

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We'll do something and and and you can re you can send people there for the

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their photos.

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That would be so great.

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Stephanie, this is going to be a lot of fun.

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I look forward to hearing each episode.

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So how often and when will we be able to hear your episodes

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We will be doing a short once a month and you'll be able to hear it on the first Wednesday of each month.

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Well, so the first one will come out April 1st.

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It will, April Fool's Day, how appropriate.

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This isn't an April Fool's joke.

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This is for real.

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This is for reals.

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No, that's fantastic, Stephanie.

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I look forward to hearing it and I know our listeners.

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uh will join you on a monthly basis.

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Do you have a name for your show yet?

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So I am brainstorming a few names and I promise by the first episode you will be able to the first

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Or second episode, you'll you'll know what the name is.

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Well, you know what?

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We could we can open it up to listeners too.

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If they have a great a great name for your your show, we can open it up to them.

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to to send it to you.

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And how can they get a hold of you?

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So uh my website is award winninghoney.

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com.

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Excellent.

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I do have a Facebook page too.

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It's Jam Session Honey and Preserves.

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Thank you, Stephanie.

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We'll be listening for you on April 1st.

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Thank you so much.

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Much for having me, I can't wait

Bonus – Introducing Stephanie Slater: Honey Shows and Judging

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