Dozens of local and not-so-local residents are heading to Cullman this weekend to pick up their annual shipment of bees.

You read that right: bees. Werner’s Trading Company — one of the few places around here where you can place a honeybee take-out order — was literally buzzing Friday to the sound of hundreds of thousands of the industrious insects.

That’s because it’s the start of this year’s beekeeping season, when gardeners and hobbyists replenish their bee supply.

Jeff and Melanie Byrd — Cullman residents who’ve taken up beekeeping as a way to promote a verdant environment — brought their son, Cole, to Werner’s Friday after getting a much-anticipated phone call notifying them that their bees — all 26,000 of them — had finally arrived.

“This is our second year doing this,” said Melanie Byrd. “I’d always been interested in it, but I never just went out there and did it. So last year, I decided to go ahead and take that leap.

“And oh, man, I did everything wrong. If it could be done wrong, I did it — and my bees still survived! So, we thought we’d add two more hives this year, which will give us three in total.”

According to store owner Rob Werner, each bee package contains approximately 13,000 bees, along with one queen.

Surrounded by the swarm, the queen bee is almost never seen. But that hasn’t stopped Cole Byrd from giving each queen her own name. There’s Rachel (the matriarch over the Byrds’ year-old colony), as well as newcomers Elizabeth and Caroline.

It’s a way for Jeff and Melanie to involve their son in an old activity that, said Werner, holds new appeal for a new generation.

“The bees have been dying, because people are using too many pesticides, so more people are getting into it for their gardening; for a more holistic and natural way of doing things,” he said.

“Some people are nostalgic, too, and they remember their grandfather doing it — or, now, they’ve got a grandson of their own, and they want to show their grandkids what they used to do.”

As useful hobbies go, beekeeping isn’t terribly expensive — especially when set against the cost of insecticide.

“One package of bees is $112,” said Werner. “Then you buy a hive, which is also about $112, and that’s what gets you started. We got 125 packages of bees in the store this week, and they are all pretty much spoken for. People come from all over to get them — not just from Cullman, but from surrounding counties, too.”

Is beekeeping something that requires special skill? Will your bees’ lives depend on how committed you are to becoming an expert apiarist (the fancy name for “beekeeper”)?

Not really, said Werner. They’re pretty low-maintenance.

“You don’t have to work much on them. Once you get them established, they’ll pretty much take care of themselves,” he assured.

“But — you’ve gotta remember: If you get into bees, you’re probably gonna be stung.”