Smooth Tips for How to Win BIG in Honey Contests

When summer wanes into August and September, county and state fairs are on the horizon. For the beekeeper, this season brings to mind two things- preparing your hives for winter, and honey contests at the fair. If you’ve been through a couple seasons of beekeeping, chances are you’re getting blessed with some of that liquid gold. Maybe you’ve finally made it to the point where you think you’ve got some cream-of-the-crop top notch honey that might just win you a ribbon (and some nice prize money, or in the very least bragging rites) at the county or state fair. Why not enter a jar or two and just see what happens?!

This month’s blog features ten smooth tips from CCBA member Matt Booth, a seasoned beekeeper and big time winner in honey contest entries.

#1 – Read the rules. Gotta start somewhere. Some contests have high stakes and are very selective in their requirements for entries. The rules matter, and may be the difference between first and second place!

#2 – Read the rules again. ‘Nuff said. Refer to #1.

#3 – Get the right jar, and clean it well (inside and out). Glass does better for contests. You think it’s a honey contest, the contents should be the most important right?! Ehh… some contests take the container into consideration, so yeah, do your homework here.

#4 – Honey should be from the same source or harvest. Mixing honey can lead to all sorts of issues, and it could be too high of stakes to risk it. Often honey contests require multiple jars for one entry, so to be on top make sure the honey is in fact all the same.

#5 – Strain the honey well. Trash (wax, bee parts, lint, etc.) in your honey will lose you points big time.

#6 – Fill your jars to the fill line and not under. If your contest requires multiple jars for one entry, ensure that all jars are filled to the same height in the jar. And it’s almost always better to overfill than underfill.

#7 – This one may seem overkill, but do your homework – check your honey clarity with a light. Refer back to #5. Shining a light through your honey jar will tell on itself if it’s got trash or impurities.

#8 – Remove any foam. Where does the foam come from? When you’re straining your honey, often the honey gets air bubbles in it. Through settling and time, the air bubbles will rise to the surface in the jar and present as foam. This can also lead to a misleading fill line. There’s a few “tried-and-true” methods for getting the foam out of the top of your honey jar. Just Google it and find your favorite. 🙂

#9 – Clean bottles again. Obviously this one is just for the outside of the jar. Once honey is inside, you don’t want to introduce anything else that could contaminate the honey. Taste is most often a point-earner.

and… #10 – Pro smooth tip and secret weapon: once you arrive to the honey contest site to deliver your entry/entries, take a tactical pause and swap out the lids. Yes, Matt said it. Any number of things could happen in transit. A bottle is knocked over, there’s a bit of foam you may not have gotten, etc. etc. Just do it. It could mean points. Also, take a cloth with you to remove any final smudges or fingerprints. Again, it could mean points!

But wait, there’s more! Bonus Smooth Tip #11. READ THE RULES AGAIN. Triple and quadruple check that you are entering into the proper category. It makes all the difference.

– Written by Carrie M., contributed by Matt Booth