J & M Apiaries

J & M Apiaries is based in Hudson, North Carolina. We currently have 3 Apiaries, which are located in Caldwell, Wilkes, and Watauga Counties. In addition to raising bees and producing honey, we specialize in honeybee removal and relocation. Although our primary interest is the honeybee, we will remove any and all other types of bees as well. There is generally little to no charge for simple honeybee removal. Charges are deteremined on a job to job basis. Damage during removal is always kept to a minimum, but repairs are ultimately the customers responsibility. Customers can be referred to a contractor for repairs if necessary.

April, May and June are the primary swarming months. So be on the lookout.

Do not spray honeybees. This generally makes your problems worse and repairs are more expensive as well.

Interesting Facts:

An average worker bee makes only about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

In order to produce one pound of honey, two million flowers must be visited.

A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.

A hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, the equivalent of three orbits around the earth to collect 1 kg or 2.2 lbs of honey.

It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.

The honeybee's wings stroke 12,000 times per minute or 200 times per second, thus making their distinctive buzz.

The honeybee is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.

Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water; and it's the only food that contains "pinocembrin", an antioxidant associated with improved brain functioning.

A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work.

The queen bee can live up to 5 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. She is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, and lays up to 2500 eggs per day.

Larger than the worker bees, the male honey bees (also called drones), have no stinger and do no work at all. All they do is mating.

Each honey bee colony has a unique odour for members’ identification.

Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and they die once they sting. Queens have a stinger, but they don’t leave the hive to help defend it.

It is estimated that 1100 honey bee stings are required to be fatal.

Honey bees communicate with one another by "dancing".

During winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months. They form a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.

http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-bee-facts.html