I have bees at the base of Roan Mountain - 6285 feet - just north of Mount
Mitchell in North Carolina.  My bee yard - or barn - as I have them on the
roof of a barn to deter bears - sits at 3200 feet.  I make two crops of
honey per year from Roan Mnt, a dark tulip poplar wildflower blend in the
spring and a very light sourwood and sometimes basswood honey mid-summer.
The bees do super well there and I think it is because they can work the
bloom as it progresses up the various elevations to the mountain top.  The
challenge in keeping bees up there is to get them through the winter and in
particular the cold, slow spring.

We sell honey at the Roan Mnt rhododendron festival every June and people
usually reach for the light colored sourwood.  But, when they taste the
darker spring honey they will buy it 2 to 1 to the sourwood.   Bees have
been a great social bridge for us to get to the know the community in our
little village of Buladean, NC as people have a long history of keeping
bees in the NC mountains.  I trade honey for firewood and mulch and give
away a lot for general goodwill.  Unfortunately, many of the local
beekeepers suffer very high mortality rates every year and the beekeeping
boom seems to be subsiding among new beekeepers as they get discouraged
with high mortality rates.

The top of Roan and Mitchell have native Frazier firs and serve as a seed
source for Frazier fir Christmas trees.

A rare December snow day in central NC,

Bill Lord
Louisburg (and Buladean), NC

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