Business was buzzing at Werners Trading Company Thursday as customers came by to pick up their order of bees on the store’s annual “bee day.”

Owner Rob Werner handed out boxes of bees and bee keeping advice – such as how to get the bees out of the boxes – throughout the day. He and one bee enthusiast who said he’s been bee keeping for 45 years, discussed the danger of RoundUp. The customer lost 10 hives when his neighbor sprayed the weed (and bee) killer throughout his yard.

The seasoned beekeeper was back to start again with a new batch of buzzers.

Werner brought the bees to Cullman from a commercial bee keeper near Vidalia, Ga., driving them back to their new homes in Cullman County. The number of packages of bees Werner distributed was down this year – likely due to people staying home – but the folks who showed up to pick up their new hives were enthusiastic.

Ricky Vickery showed up to get two of the packages – each with about 12,500, or 3 pounds, of bees.

He said he’d wanted bees for years and finally became a bee keeper last year. He’s adding on to his hobby.

“If you start reading about bees, what they do, it’s really neat,” he said.

Werner, who kept bees for more than 20 years, shares that enthusiasm. “Bees are really interesting,” he said. “They work really hard. As soon as they’re born they start feeding the queen. Once they’ve fed the queen for a while, because she doesn’t feed herself, they will move into the entrance and they’ll become guard bees. And then they go out in the field to work.”

Although he doesn’t keep bees personally anymore, he’ll keep one hive at the store where for customers to see. They can also pick up necessary supplies, like bee food, at the store and get tips from Werner. “It’s like any hobby, you can put as much into it as you want or put it out there and let them do they’re thing,” he said. “But you do have to feed them at first.”

Werner’s has also been buzzing with bicyclists bringing their cycles in to be repaired. He said since social distancing, more people are wanting to get outside. “Parents have had bikes in the garage and all of a sudden they want to take them out,” he said.

Bike repair technician Mark Puddles was fixing a bike Thursday morning.

“We’re definitely seeing more customers this year,” said Puddles who works part-time.

The store has been selling and repairing bikes for 40 years. In fact, it’s because of the bikes that the store is considered an “essential business” under the state emergency order.

“They’re transportation,” said Werner.