State Fair Honey Entries- Blue Ribbon Win!

It took 3 years of entries and I finally ribboned at the NM State Fair for honey. Yahoo! I even ribboned in a few other areas as well.

It wasn't just dumb luck on this one. I put some thought and attention to detail in my entries this year. That's a first for me. I'm more of a "big picture" kind of gal.


Here is where you can find the entry specifics for the 2012 NM State Fair

Photography- My trick to photography is that every time I get anywhere near a beehive, I take like 100,000 photos with my sticky from honey, point and shoot camera. Out of the Gillions of images I take a year, I get a handful of really good ones. For example:

Awesome Photo!!!

What the Rest of the Photos Look Like

Candle Entry- You can not go wrong with silicone molds! They are intricately detailed, hardly need any release agent, and keep the wax a consistent temperature when cooling, which prevents cracking. I get most of mine from Penguin Love. Odd name, since they don't actually sell any penguin molds that I can find.

Honey Entry- This is the 3rd year I have entered honey and the first time I have ever placed. The secret to this honey was it's amazing taste. I harvested this honey in town, close to the Rio Grande river and it was unlike anything I have ever tasted. It crystalized in less than a month and tastes like a spicy kick in the pants! Crystallization is due to the molecular composition of the honey. The more glucose found in a particular honey, the faster it crystallizes. For an in depth chemical based read on honey, "Honey," by Jonathon White. 

Chunk Comb Honey- I followed this youtube tutorial by the Lazy Beekeeper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDM5EhRbTQI. I heated a pot of water and used a heated sharp knife to make clean cuts in brand new comb that had never stored brood (babies). Each time a bee climbs out of it's cocoon, the cocoon is left behind and can be compared to jagged paper, which and tears when cut. 

Come see "Live Bees" at the NM State Fair

I just helped the Abq Beeks by manning the demonstration hive inside the Agriculture Building on Sunday. I lured people in with a sign that said "live bees" and then as everyone was mesmerized by the sight of 3000 buzzing, stinging insects, trapped in a glass hive, I talked my throat sore about drones, workers, queens and wax. This was a great outreach to the community about bees!

I was the first one to the Agriculture building on Sunday and it it took some head scratching for me to figure out how to open up the demonstration hive windows. I stopped myself 1/2 second short from releasing all the bees into the room. All I had to do was turn one knob 1/4" further and it could have really been a "live bees" exibit! I would have had to call a beekeeper or someone to get rid of all the bees. Anybody know a beekeeper?

Speaking of stopping myself 1/2 second short, I had to stop myself from beginning to tell an 8 year old about "the birds and the bees". She was wondering why there weren't any male bees (drones) in the hive and I was telling her that it's getting cold out, all the drones are getting kicked out of the hive, because there aren't as many mating flights, and that the queens get inseminated by the drones, and then impregnated and.... uh oh. I locked eyes with the girls mom at that point at turned tomato red.

At around 2, I was relieved by the fab duo of Ed and Louella Costanza. That pair can "talk Eskimo's into buying snow". What I'm trying to say is that it is easy to get entranced by their words. When Ed starts talking, a crowd gathers to hear to what he has to say.

There will also bee "live bees" next Saturday and Sunday from 11 pm-6 pm at the Fair in the Agriculture building, manned by "live beekeepers", so come with your questions.

All this happened while I was basking in the glow of my 2nd place award for wax in the NM State Fair. I didn't win anything for my honey, but there was stiff competition this year. I counted at least 50 honey entries.

Here I am entering my honey in the NM State Fair a few days ago. We're trying to decide if it's amber or light amber. Yup, dark amber.

Come check it out- Beekeepers State Fair Display Case

Here is the Albuquerque Beekeepers display case at the NM State Fair I helped put together today. We have a lovely TJ Carr top bar hive, a langstroth hive, some good reads and a whatever bee related stuff we could jam into a 3' by 5' case! More is better, right? Right? Anyway, there will be a beekeeper next to the display with a small display hive of bees both weekends to answer questions. Stop to chat and bring us deep fat fried twinkies!

Next year Megan Mahoney is plotting and planning to get together some live bee demonstrations with bee beards and whatever other fun stuff happens with bees. I can't wait. 

Are you ready to rumble? State Fair Time!

I'm getting my entries ready for the NM State Fair and am trying really hard not to let my competitive spirit take hold, but really, I am prepared to kick some honey and wax butt!

Just check out this sweet triple screened honey. The judges are going to take one taste, put down their tiny sample spoons and fight over who can gobble fistfuls of this medium-amber lusciousness. I took this comb of honey from Guatemala. I was actually worried I wouldn't have any honey for the state fair this year. I harvested for last weekend's honey stand and every drop of honey was sold. I might make another large harvest this year, but it won't be until the end of this month because of how slowly the bees are bringing in nectar.

First I cleaned the honey using a fine mesh stainer and then to remove the tiny white foam of wax on top, by straining the honey through cheesecloth, resting on another fine mesh strainer.

Not only will my honey kick some honey butt, but my butter colored wax is ready to rumble. I'm really excited about the color of this wax. I had many new hives this year and had to fight cross combing all over the place. The bummer with cutting apart this comb is that the bees had invested a huge amount of resources in comb that I cut apart to keep them growing straight on the top bars. The upside to cross combing was that I was left with a huge amount of brand new, clean comb. The queen never had a chance to lay brood in this comb, and so the beeswax is free of cocoon buildup and the dark brown stains they leave. This wax looks like butter and I have just started the process of separating it.

Rather than using a solar melter on this wax, I used my oven heated to the lowest setting and then turned off. I am still working out the kinks on my solar melter, having killed 100's of bees in my last go round. I waited until the wax melted away from the "bee trash" and then let the wax cool.

If you are interested in entering your honey or wax or comb honey in the NM State Fair, entries are due this week on September 6-7. Here is the link for NM State Fair Honey Entries. I will see you there!