King Cobra Apiary was started in 2015 by Ali Iyoob with a few hives and a vision for something larger. As a first generation farmer, he cashed out his 401k to buy bee equipment, and invested everything he could back into the operation. Ali spent countless long days and nights raising up and managing for the most productive honey bees possible, which allowed King Cobra Apiary to prosper into one of the larger commercial honey bee operations in the area.

In early 2016, Ali met Alicia Ballard, another beekeeper and professional research entomologist, and the two teamed up as business partners and as a couple. The two spent many sleepless nights together building product inventory, researching market strategies, and figuring out how to run a successful farming operation. King Cobra Apiary has faced many challenges over the years, but has overcome these obstacles with hard work, dedication, and a passion to produce a quality product. 🐝

Our operation primarily focuses on local honey production in North Carolina by utilizing quality bees and natural forage. In our operation, we observe an abundance of wildflower nectar being collected by our honey bees, including blackberry, black locust, clover, tulip poplar, and many other flower species that naturally occur in the beautiful landscape of North Carolina. This diversity enables us to harvest three distinct honey varieties throughout the year. Each of our varietals offer a unique color and award-winning flavor profile that is loved by many throughout our state. Our honey is raw, straight from the hive with nothing added.

Our honey can be found in several stores that carry local products throughout North Carolina. We have also had the privilege to collaborate with many local partners to produce amazing products such as honey-infused beer, wine, mead, beauty products, and more! We're also vendors at three weekly local farmers' markets: Chapel Hill Farmers' Market, South Durham Farmers' Market, and Holly Springs Farmers' Market. We also maintain a self-serve honey shop directly on our farm that is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year.🐝

Each winter, we take hundreds of our North Carolina honey-producing hives down to southern Georgia to get a head start on queen rearing, colony splits, and five frame nuc production for our beekeeping customers. Before the North Carolina spring honey flow hits, we bring all of our hives back to North Carolina and sell honey bee nucs to customers within our state and beyond.

Our five frame nucs contain a laying Italian x Carniolan queen and five frames of workers, brood, pollen, and honey in a transportable nuc box. Our queens have been bred from some of the most well-known hygienic and production queen lines and are of the highest-quality. All honey bees sold are accompanied by a clean bill of health from the NC Department of Agriculture.

We love being able to produce high-quality nucs for our beekeeping customers. We have worked very hard over the years to ensure our queen lines are top-notch. 🐝

We offer large-scale professional pollination services to full-time blueberry, watermelon, and apple growers in North Carolina and Virginia.

Shoot us an email at info@kingcobraapiary.com or give us a call at (919) 500-0166 for inquiries. 🐝

Please note: We do not offer pollination services to those that will use pesticides or other harmful chemicals on the crops when the bees will be on site.