Little Mountain Bees

Little Mountain Bees Little Mountain Bees Is a family operated apiary located in Augustaville, Northumberland county on route 890.

03/31/2025

3/31/2025 Sunny, 72 degrees. With the warm temps the last few days and abundant pollen available our Mason Bees began to emerge from their winter slumber. Mason Bees do not produce honey nor do they build comb. What they are great at is pollinating. Whereas Honeybees gather pollen and transport it back to their colony in their pollen baskets, Mason Bees crawl around flowers and pollen adheres to their entire body. When they visit the next flower the pollen is dislodged and transferred to that bloom. Mason Bees can be very beneficial for early flowering fruit trees. Mason Bees also forage on cooler days when Honeybees prefer to stay in their hive.

03/30/2025

3/29/2025. 8:50 am. Temps in the mid 50s. Winds light and variable. Our P***y Willows are in full pollen and the honeybees wasted no time filling their pollen baskets. They will haul their cargo back to their hives where it will be mixed with nectar ( mostly from maple trees in our area) This concoction is called “Bee Bread” This Bee Bread will be fed to the young larva. Brood rearing is really starting to ramp up for spring build up. Some other sources of pollen and nectar this time of the year include Willows, Maples, Witch Hazel, and various early spring flowers like Crocus. It won’t be long before we start opening up our hives to do our first spring inspections. We look forward to welcoming in another new bee season.

10/10/2024. A local group of individuals are heading to North Carolina tomorrow to volunteer their time and effort to as...
10/10/2024

10/10/2024. A local group of individuals are heading to North Carolina tomorrow to volunteer their time and effort to assist with clean up from hurricane Helene. Although we can’t go along we are sending two pails of bottled honey along with them to help with the shortage of basic necessities.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and recovery personnel

4/22/24 First round of grafted Queen Cells headed for the incubator. These cells were grafted from overwintered survivor...
04/23/2024

4/22/24 First round of grafted Queen Cells headed for the incubator. These cells were grafted from overwintered survivor stock. We will have mated Queens available about the middle of May 2024.

01/26/2024

1/26/2024. A beautiful day, 57 degrees, sunshine, winds light and variable. With the passing of our recent cold snap this is the perfect opportunity to check food stores in all of our hives. Today as we walked through our Beeyard we were welcomed by the familiar sound of buzzing honeybees. We lifted the lid on every colony and added additional sugar cakes as necessary. Winter survival looks very good so far. Colonies that had visible clusters of bees looked strong and healthy. We will check food stores again in another 3 weeks or so. The accompanying video was taken while walking through part of our Nuc yard.

9/30/2023 After working in the Beeyard this morning we walked around our property checking out some of the last forage a...
10/01/2023

9/30/2023 After working in the Beeyard this morning we walked around our property checking out some of the last forage available for our honeybees as well as other insects that depend on these last flowering plants. The Asters in white and purple as well as Golden Rod were a buzz with numerous Honeybees, and Bumblebees. The nectar and pollen that these plants provide is crucial for the survival of those insects. As winter approaches the available forage diminishes quickly. It’s this time of the year that we as Beekeepers must make sure our Bees are well fed and mite free.
All of our Varroa Mite treatments are complete and hives have been reduced and configured for winter. In the next few days we will assess all of our colonies for food stores. Those that are low on food will be fed until they attain adequate weight to sustain them through winter.

08/13/2023

8/13/2023. Here is another “Some Times The Beeyard Isn’t Always About The Bees”. This Hummingbird foraging on Jewel W**d blooms made me smile. As I continued doing hive inspections I kept thinking about how lucky I was to be at the right place at the right time.

05/10/2023

5/9/2023 While doing hive inspections we remove drone brood from the bottoms of the frames. This allows frames to set properly and makes it easier to remove frames on the next inspection. We collect this waste in a tin can for disposal at the end of the day. Today after working hives I set the can on our Beeyard bench while cleaning up our equipment. It only took a minute or two for this Tufted Titmouse to find it. This video fits in perfectly with what I call “Sometimes the Beeyard isn’t always about the bees”. We really enjoyed watching as this little guy made several trips to the can to enjoy a tasty snack of bee larva.

05/06/2023

5/5/2023. Temps in the 60s, sunny, with a slight breeze. With the foul weather we had this past week our bees were cooped up in their hives. We had numerous Virgin Queens waiting for a break in the weather to venture out on their mating flights. Today was the day they got their opportunity. This is just one of many Queens returning today from their mating flights. To the inexperienced beekeeper it may appear that these bees are swarming. If this was a swarm the bees would be pouring out of this hive, instead they are pouring into the hive. Over the years we have witnessed this many times. Within just a few short minutes this whole spectacle was over.
We are again offering mated Queens and ripe Queen Cells this year.

04/22/2023

4/19/2023 Temps in the 70s, slight breeze, sunny, and a strong nectar flow. Add to the mix hives packed with bees and you have the perfect recipe for swarming. Honeybees “ swarm “ to increase their population. When a hive starts to become overpopulated in the spring swarms can and will occur. This is a naturally occurring event and most times is a sign of a strong and healthy colony. Typically an older queen bee will swarm from her original hive and take somewhere between 30 - 60 % of those bees with her. Before leaving several queen cells will be produced. These queen cells will hopefully emerge into a new Queen therefore Re-Queening the hive to ensure its ability to continue. Swarms usually land close to the original hive location and anywhere from on the ground to 60 feet (or higher) up in a tree. They may also land on buildings or even a child’s swing set, or any other place imaginable.
This swarm landed on one of several Russian Scions we placed around our home Beeyard. This made for an easy recovery of the swarm. Within several minutes of them swarming we had them housed in a new hive.
We have ripe Queen Cells available now. Mated Queens will be available the 3rd week of May.

3/9/2023 39 degrees, mixed sun, moderate wind. We are again on the doorstep of another winter storm. The Weather Chan...
03/10/2023

3/9/2023 39 degrees, mixed sun, moderate wind. We are again on the doorstep of another winter storm. The Weather Channel is predicting snow and a winter mix. Our last hive check for food stores was on 2/25/23. We decided to check again today as the extended forecast looks like cold and blustery days ahead. With the daytime temps in the low 40s the last few weeks the bees stayed quite active inside the hives but natural forage was limited. Brood rearing is ramping up for spring build up. We were surprised to see how low their emergency winter food
supply had gotten in just 12 days. The attached picture was of the last hive we checked. All that remained were the 3 small pieces on the left side. We added the last two partial pieces of sugar cake that we had with us. We will go back in a few days to add more. It is very important to frequently check your Honeybees food supply this time of year. Many colonies are lost due to starvation in March. Even though the Maples, Willows, Snow Drops, Crocus, Henbit, and a variety of other plants are starting to provide some forage for the bees the weather plays a huge part in how much the bees can gather. The cool overcast or windy days keeps the bees in the hive consuming their winter stores and not out foraging.

02/17/2023

2/14/2023 Temps near 60 degrees, sunny and calm. With mild temps in the forecast for the next several weeks we decided to give our honeybees a treat. We placed about 8 Lb of pollen substitute out for open feeding. We placed the pollen substitute about 100 yards from our Beeyard. It only took several minutes for the bees to locate it and within one hour they completely relocated all 8 pound back to their hives. Not a single spec remained. Pollen is the protein source for honeybees. When nectar becomes available in the spring it will be mixed with the pollen to make bee bread which is fed to the young brood.

Address

2767 State Route 890
Sunbury, PA
17801

Telephone

+15709757606

Website

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