Welcome to Sun Mountain Apiary
Sun Mountain Apiary Updates
Drones are the male bees in the hive and this time of year, the female worker bees boot those boys out of the hive. As they serve no purpose during the winter and just eat the honey reserves, they are sacrificed. It is a common sight to see one struggling to get back in the hive while three or more workers block him. By November the hive will be inhabited solely by female bees (queen and workers). Tough time to be a drone! Store Updates Our extracting is complete with honey supers and equipment cleaned and put away for the season. It was a great harvest with favorable weather throughout the summer. If you, or you know someone who may be interested, we do offer special pricing on case lots of honey. Just email me if you are interested in 12 or more jars of honey and what size. I will be happy to quote you. For a limited time, we will have a “sale shelf” at the store. Sizes will vary but it is the same pure, raw 2024 honey as in the rest of the store. Sale items will include discontinued sizes (ex. 1.5 lb pints), honey beginning to granulate (just warm it) or jars with miss-applied labels or not filled 100%. Stock will vary as we pull these, so check often for your favorite size and a nice savings to you. Cold weather is around the corner and you will want natural relief for your hands and lips. Good news as we currently have a good supply of Linda’s ever popular lotion bars in stock! We will not have the quantities of candles we have had in the past but we do have a good selection of smaller candles in stock now. All candles are 100% beeswax made right here from our own wax. Enjoy these last nice days of fall and bee safe! Bob |
Family Farm Day was a huge success. The weather was beautiful and we had 74 folks attend to learn more about bees, our operation and visit our store. Folks of all ages had lots of fun seeing our displays, visiting hives, and seeing our extracting operation. It was great to meet many of our customers in person! Many thanks to all our helpers - beekeepers Mike Hammond and Mick Bello and welcome desk volunteers Jeane Hay and Luanne Mancheffer. Linda was even able to make an appearance for a bit in the afternoon. Thanks also to our neighbors and friends Ray & Sara Luhrman of Fox Creek Farms CSA (foxcreekfarmcsa.com). People asked if you had to go to their farm to get produce. It is easier than that! They deliver throughout the Capital Region including Albany, Schenectady, Rotterdam, Clifton Park, Ballston Spa, Delmar, and Altamont. Delivery days are on their website or reach out to them for more information. We are now about half way through our honey harvest and it is proving to be a very good one. We recently added a 200 liter (53 gallon/~ 636 lbs) settling tank. which has been extremely beneficial. The additional tank allows me to pull honey supers from the hives on nice days and extract and bottle whenever I can to keep the process moving. The new tank and our bottling tank are stainless steel with silicone seals so they can sit with honey in them without fear of the honey absorbing ambient moisture or off flavors. The fall honey is just a bit darker than the spring honey. Still quite light in taste but a bit stronger than the spring honey. Stop by the store and try some! Thanks, and bee kind, Bob "I tried absolutely everything to help with my chronic chapped fingers. Your lotion bars have been the BEST BY FAR and one of the few products which actually helps! Thank you!" - K. Abbate, Colonie
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In 2020 we went through the testing and inspection process to become a “NY Grown and Certified Honey Producer.” While all claim their honey is pure, and bees are the best, we decided to back the claims up with the documentation and inspections that prove we have healthy hives, excellent sanitation in extraction, and nothing but pure, raw NY local honey.
Pure - Natural- Raw |