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Scottsboro Bee Co.
We have been beekeepers since 2005. Let's just say it's been a steep learning curve.
What We Do
Bee Farmers
As the name suggests we are in the bee business-- we produce bees. This is no small thing at a time when colony survival rates in the US are as small as 50% annually. If cattle producers were losing half their cattle every year, we would be having a different conversation. Yet, these pollenators are responsible for a third of the food on our talbes. Habitat loss, evolving pests, agricultural chemicals, genetics... don't get us started. A Google search on US bee colony loss will tell the sad story.
We have several yards in Jackson County working with several breeds. Our goals are modest:
- A self sustaining operation
- Producing healthy stock
- With enough surplus to sell queens and nucleus colonies to beginners and hobbists
- A modest, secondary by-product stream of honey, pollen, and other items.
Product List
Honey & Live Bees
Tell what you are using it for and we can sometimes recommend for color, taste, and consistency. e.g., table sweetener, cooking, medicinal, BBQ sauce base.
Quart/Pint
We only bottle in glass. Our production wildflower honey for 2023 is from our Scottsboro and July Mountain yards. It is medium and versatile honey that has only been filtered at 400 microns and not heated above 110 degrees.
Our pints are available at Patrick's Meat Market and Rapha Wellness Comany, both in Scottsboro. If you know us and want to chase us around town, still that's fine, too.
Creamed Honey- 1/2 pint/pints
Our honey, but spreadable! Great for toast and sandwiches. Usually available by November for Christmas presents.
Nucleus Colony for Spring 2023
We are splitting for nuc sales the first week in April. 2023 Carny Queen with 3 frames of mixed brood, 1 food frame, and one rolled waxed frame with a shake of extra bees. We prove the Queen through one cycle.
Preorders will be filled the first week of May. We will offer cash and carry Mid May through Mid June as available.
We reserve the right to save our bees from certain death if we don't think you know what you are doing.
Single Deep w/ a nuc of bees
INSTANT COLONY! Just add springtime. Yes, this is how we cycle out old equipment, but the cheapest way for new beekeepers to add a colony. You get a nuc of bees with laying queen; at least 5 frames of drawn comb with eqqs, larve, stores, & brood; the remaining frames are heavily rolled waxed foundation ready to work. It all comes in a used deep on a used bottom board with a used top cover. Availability varies.
We reserve the right to save our bees from certain death if we don't think you kno
Single Source Custom (SOLD OUT f/ season)
We have sold the Indian Bluff yard where we could usually provide single-source honey.
But [shhh] we do have our eye on a secret stand of sourwood. If the bees cooperate we will have some super dupper premium quarts by July.
Local Cash & Carry or Ship
Email or call us and we will figure out what you what and how to get it to you in one piece. Honey usually ships best USPS Priority Flat Rate: medium box comes with $50 insurance and tracking cost $13.60. The medium box can accommodate (2) quarts or (4) gift pints of honey. You can mix and match.
Some Southern refugees have us slip in slip in some Sand Mountain molassas, White Lilly flour, boiled peanuts, or a packet of country ham. Bless their hearts. We once worked "on up north" so we try to oblige.