Inside his operation, power saws blare as a crew works overtime to meet the growing demand. Beverly Miller, his wife, is on the phone telling customers and retail outlets that sell their hives about delays: “We've just been doing so much business. It's hard to keep up,” she says.

It's a sweet time to be in the beekeeping equipment business. As more people become interested in raising bees as a hobby, demand for beekeeping essentials such as wooden hives and smokers – as well as live bees themselves – is outstripping supply.

Some newcomers to the hobby have to wait weeks, even months for start-up supplies, some N.C. retail shops have reported. Retailers who specialize in bee equipment, most of whom are mom-n-pop operations, say they're as busy as, well, you know.

“It's going gangbusters,” said Barbara Tapp, who works at Busy Bee Apiaries in Chapel Hill. She said the company is making higher profits but customers also have been disappointed by the long wait. New customers, for instance, are unable to get all the parts of a starter kit.

Starter kits sold at Busy Bee and other retail outlets generally include a package of live bees imported from Italy, a queen bee, a wooden hive, a smoker, bee suit and other tools of the trade. To get started, supplies run from $150 to $300.

“It's causing us to be out of everything. We've got back orders. It's hit us pretty hard,” Tapp said

The surge in beekeeping is thought to spring from people who want to help revive a declining bee population, which has been decimated by a recent North American epidemic of dying honeybees, called colony collapse disorder.

National news attention about the decline in hives has inspired some to raise bees. A healthy honeybee population is important because the insects pollinate crops that provide about one-third of the U.S. food supply.

The mysterious disorder has killed at least 25 percent of the honeybee population over the past several years. Scientists are researching root causes. And it's unclear if amateur beekeepers raising new bees will make a difference over the long haul, said Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture magazine, published in Medina, Ohio. “But any new hive is a good thing.”

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, located in Wilkes County and another major wooden beehive manufacturer, has a message posted on its Web site apologizing for at least a two-week delay in delivering orders.

“Customers have asked, why are we so behind? My response is that it's difficult to plan ahead when you have ‘Good Morning America' doing a five-minute piece on how to install a bee hive,” said Shane Gebauer, general manager of Brushy Mountain. “It just takes a small percentage of those viewers to want to take it up.”

Michelle Barry, a veteran beekeeper and mother of four, has 10 hives at her Apex property. She's been waiting months for a wax melter, which converts beeswax into candles and other products, she said. “It's about impossible to get a smoker, which is one of the most basic pieces of equipment.”

Al Hidreth, a Chapel Hill resident, took a beginners' class in Johnston County after reading about colony collapse, he said. He had to wait weeks for his start-up equipment.

No centralized organization tracks backyard beekeepers or U.S. beekeeping operations.

But judging by the increasing number and size of start-up classes held around the country, the ranks of new U.S. beekeepers has more than doubled over last year, said Flottum, the magazine editor.

The national beekeeping conference, held in January in Sacramento, Calif., hosted 1,200 participants, up from about 600 the year before, said Troy Fore, executive director of the American Beekeeping Federation, based in Jessup, Ga.

And locally, the annual beginners course given from January to April by the Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association was full this year. Some of the would-be hobbyists had to be turned away, said Libby Mack, membership secretary for the group.

“Honey bees are in the news,” she said. Mack has several hives with her husband in Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood.

Western North Carolina occupies a special place in beekeeping culture, particularly Wilkes County, one of the few places where the sourwood tree flourishes. The honey from sourwood nectar is considered a delicacy around the world. Every region has its particular honey, like wine, but sourwood is “sweeter, finer – it's just better,” Flottum said.

As Miller tends to his hives behind his business, he's careful not to upset the bees because he's highly allergic to their stings. It's a potentially lethal irony for a beekeeper, and one that has sent Miller to the emergency room in the past.

But it is his passion and well worth the risk, says the entrepreneur. He downplays newfound profits as “making a good living.” His customers drive from as far away as Myrtle Beach and Tennessee to visit his shop.

His operation ran out of inventory and supplies in April. He thought the inventory would last until mid-summer. “We're behind,” he said. “But it's a good problem to have.”

By Christopher D. Kirkpatrick
ckirkpatrick@charlotteobserver.com