Bee trivia Honey bees are not native to North America. They were first introduced in Jamestown in 1622 and gradually spread on their own throughout the colonies and eventually westward. The Native Americans called them “white man’s flies.” By the early 1900's, the US was the largest honey producer in the world and NYS was the largest honey producing state in the country.
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More Bee trivia: Did you know many churches still require 100% beeswax candles and the Catholic Church requires candles used for mass be at least 51% beeswax? (Excerpt below from Catholic Magazine, 1991)Light, as the New Catholic Encyclopedia notes, signifies “joy, optimism, goodness, purity, beauty, festiveness, dignity and life. It is opposed to darkness, which signifies sadness, gloom, desolation, death, ignorance, error, and evil in general.” We find that by Jerome’s time, “In all the churches of the East lights are lit when the Gospel is to be read, even though the sun is rising, but the purpose is not to dispel the darkness but to give a visible sign of joy.” When the meaning of the beeswax candle was pondered, particularly in the Middle Ages, a rich and detailed symbolism emerged. Christ had declared, “I am the light of the world” (John 9:5), and the candle’s light came to be the symbol for his presence. The pale wax of the candle symbolizes Christ’s flesh, his sacred humanity. The wick, embedded in the center of the candle, represents his soul. The flame, as it burns down the wick, consumes the wax to give us light. It burns, expending itself, sacrificing itself, just as Christ sacrificed himself. The burning candle is aesthetically pleasing, and it gives a sweet aroma as it burns, another reminder of the presence of our Lord. The wax produced by the honeybee is considered the sweetest and purist, the most appropriate for symbolizing the humanity of Christ. It is produced by the bees actually consuming honey. Honey itself is a symbol for the superlative in sweetness, the sweetness of the Word of God.
If you are interested in beekeeping classes in the spring shoot us an email and we will provide details.
Comments from Bob!
Notes from June 28, 2024 We are pleased to announce the Sun Mountain Honey Store will be opening this Saturday, June 29! We are certainly blessed to have wonderful friends, who knowing my wife Linda is unable to help this year, stepped up and helped with extraction and bottling. This helped immensely and kept us on track for opening this weekend. The honey is beautiful and light with lots of clover and early fruit blossom nectar. We have all sizes bottled and available although it will be a few more days before we have comb honey. That has to go through a few more steps but should be available Monday. As usual we have our honey jar return this year. Just return any clean honey jar and take $1 off all 1-3 pound jars and $2 off for every 4-12 pound jar returned. No need to remove the label, just wash the jar and leave it on the cash counter. Bee Trivia: Did you know that nearly all honey bees communicate by scent? Both the queen and workers secrete pheromones that communicate the health of the queen, how many workers are in various roles and needed for others, and to alert the colony to danger. The pheromones inside the hive are relayed by touch. Workers touch the queen then spread the queen pheromone throughout the hive. Outside the hive, alarm and sex pheromones are spread as a scent and in fact you can smell the “danger” pheromone as it smells like bananas! Our store is self-serve and open from 9am to 5pm daily. Stop by and if you would take a moment to review us on Google we would appreciate it. You can review here: https://g.page/r/CQw38g274rdKEAI/review Bee safe and hope to see you soon! Bob
Notes from June 15th, 2024 Everyone is anxious to know when the honey store will open, so just a quick update to let you know that barring unforeseen weather events, we will be open by July 1. With the warm spring we began adding honey supers to the hive a bit earlier so with a bit of luck we may even be able to open a day or two earlier and if so, we will let you know.
Why our bees can make such great honey!
The girls have had a great spring as blooms have been prolific and the bees are taking full advantage of them. Right now, wild multiflora rose is in full bloom in the hedgerows. While this invasive, thorny bush is tough to encounter on trails, the bees sure enjoy their fragrant flowers. White clover is also really coming on strong and that makes a light, flavorful honey that most folks love.
We are coming off winter with one of our best years ever of overwintering and with strong hives and good weather so far, we are looking forward to a great honey harvest this spring and fall.
Note all the pollen on their pollen sacs
This spring we have also been working on a significant addition to Linda’s “craft room” where she makes the beeswax candles and lotion bars. Windows have been installed, spray foam insulation in place, painting is largely complete and we hope to get the flooring done this week. Unfortunately during this process, Linda has encountered some serious medical challenges so we are praying all works out so she can enjoy her new “digs” and make the lotion bars everyone is asking for.
We look forward to seeing all our friends at the store again! Bee safe, Bob
Notes from March 22nd 2024 Although it doesn’t feel it at the moment, HAPPY SPRING! It has been an unusual winter with virtually no snow and well above normal temperatures. This can actually be hard on the bees as they have been out scores of times on those warm winter days looking for pollen and nectar. This burns up their winter stores of food very rapidly with nothing to show for it. It also places a lot of wear and strain on the “winter bees” which need to make it all the way through winter and are not designed for field work.
The good news is though that our hives have overwintered remarkably well with the lowest hive loss ever. We are hoping the very cold weather of the past few days hasn't hurt them. With a little cooperative weather this summer, we should have a great harvest. As usual, we are planning to reopen the Honey Store on July 1st. With the colder weather of this past week it was a good time to clean and upgrade our honey supers for the upcoming season. We set up several colonies this past summer to overwinter and be split into “Nucs” or nucleus colonies for sale this spring. These provide beekeepers with a five-frame colony and marked queen raring to get started. We have a limited number for sale, so if you know someone wanting to get started in beekeeping or wants to increase their hives, we can help. See our website for details.
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Sun Mountain Apiary 127 Marcus Road Delanson, NY 12053