[Bens-Bees]

I know many beekeepers like to compete at the county fair. Those of you that have won, please tell the rest of us your "secrets to success". I am going to enter wax into the fair this year for the first time, and will probably enter honey in subsequent years. So what tips can those of you that have won, give?

 

[Rohe Bee Ranch]

Use a de-humidifier to help dry out your honey down to 16%. Let it sit for a long time to allow for ALL the bubbles to rise before you bottle it. Fill it to the corrected/inspected level in the jar (check your judging rules for what they are looking for). Keep it all very clean!

Good luck!

 

[bigevilgrape]

I suggest looking at www.beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com she has several posts on prepairing honey and wax for contests.

 

[Tillie]

There are a lot of posts on my blog specifically about pouring wax for contests, since that is what you want to enter. It's very hard. I poured my first wax block entry 19 (nineteen!!!!) times before I got it right, but then I won a blue ribbon....

Also Brendhan Horne has posted a talk I gave at the Southeast Organic Beekeepers meeting in February on preparing honey and wax for competition. It's a strange video because it goes all the way through honey preparation and then starts all over again. The section on preparing wax is at the end of the second part of the video (the repeat of the first part), but I think you'll find it worth watching because all the hints on how to do wax well are in one place in that presentation rather than sorting through all my blog posts.

When it starts over, just speed through the repeat of the honey info until you get to the wax entries.

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2010/04/talk-on-preparing-honey-and-wax-for.html

Linda T in Atlanta