Little Mountain Bees

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Sunbury, PA
Little Mountain Bees

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

08/01/2026

8/1/2026 82°F, abundant sunshine, gentle breeze. Did you ever purchase a mated queen and wonder How the heck did they get that queen and those attendant bees in that cage. You get to see the whole process in this video. All of our queens stay in some sort of mating nuc until sold. We do not bank any queens. In my opinion you get a better queen this way. When catching queens be sure to pick her up by both wings to reduce the possibility of injuring her. I like to start her in the cage head first. This eliminates any injury to her abdomen. After she walks in the cage simply place your finger over the hole until you are ready to put your attendants in. When putting attendants in I like to put the business end in first ( abdomen first). This reduces the amount of stings I take. Three or four attendants is usually what I put in with the queen. Young nurse bees make better attendants then older forager bees.
Even though Queen Bees have a stinger, I have handled thousands of them and have never been stung by a Queen.
Pro Tip. When learning to handle Queen bees bare handed start by catching Drones ( male bees). They are larger but more importantly they DO NOT HAVE STINGERS.
We still have a few Queens available.

07/30/2026

7/29/2026 Today we did something a little different then spending the day working bees. We did an educational talk for approximately 50 children and parents at the Degenstein Library in downtown Sunbury. Our presentation was primarily about how honeybees make honey. In order to do that we first talked about what a honeybee is. We discussed some basic honeybee biology. We covered how the forager bees locate nectar rich plants. We talked about how they collect that nectar and how it’s transported back to the hive. We covered how the nectar is passed from bee to bee and then stored in the comb. We covered the process of how the nectar is dried down to the proper moisture content and finally wax production and capping the honey. We also covered some of the nectar and pollen rich plants as well as the basic beekeeping tools we use to work bees. The Observation hive full of bees we took along gave the children a chance to see honeybees up close. I am always amazed when I speak to young children at how much they know about bees. This group of kids was no different and engaged with a lot of questions and showed an interest in honeybees. I enjoyed the time spent with this group of kids and their parents.

07/23/2026

7/23/2026 Full sun, 75°F, wind light and variable. This post is part of what I like to call “ Sometimes the Bee yard isn’t always about the bees”. While pulling up to my Queen mating yard I was surprised to see an adult hen Turkey just a few yards away. She seemed oblivious to my presence. The second photo is of a small Garter Snake. I got quite a surprise when I picked up one of my Mini Mating Nucs and found it laying beneath. We have several Bluebird boxes around our property and while heading into our home Beeyard I snapped the next pic. Here an Eastern Bluebird is guarding her box. This particular box produced 2 clutches of babies this year. And lastly, after spending the better part of a whole day working bees I was surprised to see these 3 Whitetail Deer as I drove out of our home Beeyard. All 4 photos were taken within 50 yards of our hives and in the last few weeks. It makes me smile every time I think about these sightings and how lucky I was to capture the moment.

07/16/2026

7/16/2026 90°F, partly cloudy sky, winds light. Considerable Canadian Smoke observed.
Over the last several weeks I have had numerous inquiries on how to insert a Queen into a queen-less hive. I took this clip this morning while installing a mated Queen. This three frame mating nuc was one of the very few that did not produce a newly mated and laying queen from my last round of grafts.
The Queen I’m installing is 3 weeks old and outgrew her Mini Mating Nuc. She is in a JZBZ Queen Cage along with three of her attendants. This is the way I install this type of queen cage. Let it be known there are many ways to do this.
Simply spread the frames with your hive tool.
Insert the queen cage in the gap you made.
Gently slide frames back together.
Note the candy tube is oriented at the top. Also note that the RED, CANDY TUBE CAP was already removed.
Thats all there is to it. I will check back to see if she was released in 3-5 days. If not poke a small hole in the candy plug using a paper clip or small nail.
We still have Mated Queens available.

07/14/2026

7/14/2026 92°F. Full sun. Winds light and variable. A quick tip for your bees in high temperatures. Even with a stream flowing fifty yards from our home bee yard the bees in the video are taking advantage of the additional water sources we placed around our property. You can use anything that holds water. In the past we have used lids from five gallon buckets, and even shallow trays used for starting seeds. We even tried a small children’s swimming pool. This year we took advantage of an old bird bath. The options are limited only by your imagination. However we found that shallower vessels seem to be better. It doesn’t have to hold gallons of water but what’s most important is that there is always clean water available. The bees not only drink the water, but also haul it back to their hive and use it to cool down their living quarters. This is accomplished by the forager bees dropping off their payload of water and the house bees fan their wings to create their own air conditioning. When internal hive temps climb above 95°F brood failure begins. Whatever you decide to use be sure to place stones or sticks in the water. This will help prevent drowning of bees that wind up in the water.

07/08/2026

7/7/2026 Temps in the low 80°s, overcast with light winds. Today as I was finishing up in my home beeyard I wondered what our bees were foraging on. Some colonies were showing signs of low forage availability while others had frames of freshly collected nectar and pollen. As I pondered the differences I noted between the hives I inspected I decided to walk around our property and check what forage plants were available. This is what I found.
RED AND WHITE CLOVER in abundance.
CHICORY in patches that ranged in size from single plants to fairly large patches. As for the plantings we did for bee forage there was CONER FLOWERS. We have hundreds of these in several large patches. Cone Flowers are a good source of nectar and pollen. Where this plant shines is that it produces nectar all day. A few years ago we planted 150 BUTTON BUSH seedlings. These are just starting to show the benefits of our labor. The Button Bush is a very good forage plant with its abundant flowers that look like something out of a science fiction movie. Buttoned Bush produces flowers from July to September. This makes it a very good forage plant because it’s available during the dearth we experience at this time.
The important thing to remember when planting for your bees is to plant in patches. Honeybees are more attracted to clusters of plants as opposed to a single plant here and there.

06/30/2026

6/29/2026. Temps in the upper 80s, winds light, full sun. Queen Castles are a great way for beekeepers to keep a few extra Queens on hand. You never know when you will come across a Queen-less hive while doing your inspections. If you need a Queen you just take one from your Queen Castle and and put her in the queen-less hive using a Queen cage.
Queen Castles are usually set up on a 10 frame box in either medium or deep frame configurations. In the deep set up there will be 4 compartments consisting of 2 frames each with a divider in between every 2 frames. Each compartment will have its own entrance, one on each side of the box. Each compartment will also have its own inner cover.
The medium frame set up will consist of 3 compartments with 3 frames in each. There will also be individual entrances for each compartment. Usually one on each side and the third in the front.
Each compartment will house a mini colony consisting of a Queen, Field bees, and nurse bees.
However, their small cavity size can create over crowding quickly. As can be seen in the photo. If left in this congested state they are likely to swarm to reduce the population. This can be remedied by removing one of the frames full of bees and given to a weaker colony. Then replace that frame with a new frame. In this case you are using your Queen Castles as a resource hive.
I should also mention that in the photo you see a second box. I placed that there to help reduce the heat build up on these hot days. It should also be mentioned that the bees do not have access to the upper box.

06/22/2026

6/21/2026. Temps in the 70s, light and variable winds, abundant sun. It was a great day to be a honeybee. Our milkweed has started to flower. Multiple bees were seen on just about every flower head. They were enjoying the sweet abundant nectar. Honeybees produce a mild, light colored honey from Milkweed nectar.
The loss of many spring forage blooms from the freezing temps in April had food stores low in many of our colonies. The milkweed, along with white clover has started to put some weight in our hives thanks to the much needed rain we have been receiving the last two weeks.
Asters, Lavender, and Tree of Heaven blooms are also good forage sources in the month of June.

12/22/2025

12/18/2025 Sunny, 39 degrees, winds light and variable. Today we did our first food stores check on all of our hives. Any hives that appeared to be light on food got additional sugar cakes. With the low nectar flow in the fall there is a possibility for starvation during the winter months. To compensate for this we always supply each hive with emergency feed in the form of sugar cakes.
It was nice to see the bees out and about and to hear the familiar sounds of a busy bee yard. With the cold and windy days of the past few weeks the girls had an opportunity today to get out and go on cleansing flights.
We will again be offering nucs in the spring of 2026. Mated queens will also be available as soon as weather permits.

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.

Address

2767 State Route 890
Sunbury, PA
17801

Telephone

+15709757606

Website

http://www.LittleMountainBees.com/

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