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Three's Bees honey is all naturally, produced right here in Pike County.

The hive's queen can be seen marked with green paint at the bottom.

The Troy Messenger's Jessica Frandsen holds up a honeycomb.

The Troy Messenger's Haley Strickland lifts a bee box.

Hives can hold thousands of bees.

Three's Bees can house up to 50 hives on its property in Troy.

Three's Bees honey is available at several locations in Troy.

Troy natives Trey and Leigh Ingram own and operate Three’s Bees, which can house up to 50 beehives currently, providing locally produced honey to the area.

Trey Ingram, retired from the U.S. Military, said he began to think about getting into beekeeping when he was closing in on retirement.

“I was getting close to retirement and thinking about what I wanted to do,” Ingram recalled. “Bees have always fascinated me but I never really thought it was something I would want to do as a job.”

Ingram began taking beekeeping courses through the military’s Heroes to Hives program and then his wife started taking beekeeping courses, as well. Trey Ingram then went into an internship at Auburn University’s Bee Lab. After the internship, Ingram stayed on and worked for six more months as a beekeeper technician. Ingram and one other technician managed 400 hives in the Bee Lab.

With all of that experience, Ingram and his wife founded Three’s Bees in Troy, which is truly a family operation with their sons and Trey Ingram’s father helping out with the business.

“I consider it to be therapeutic, because it forces you to slow down and be a little more methodical,” Trey Ingram said. “It’s hot and the more movement you do around them – or if you squish one it activates a pheromone – the more mad they get and start to sting you. So, it forces you to slow down.”

Along with keeping up to 50 hives on property, Three’s Bees also extracts the honey, filters it and bottles it all in house. Additionally, Three Bees helps to extract bee hives in the local area and Ingram said they hope to become queen rearing in the future, which would allow Three’s Bees to provide queens for other beekeepers. Ingram also mentors – and aids – other beekeepers in the area.

Three’s Bees name came almost as naturally as its honey.

“I am a third, Earl Ingram III, and I have three boys, my nickname in high school was ‘Three,’ three is my lucky number and three rhymes with bee,” Ingram said with a laugh. “It all just fell into place, Three’s Bees.”

Three’s Bees’ all-natural, locally produced honey is currently available at a number of locations in Troy, including The Market, Burlap and Silk, Fuse Coffee and Whaley Pecan Company. The honey is also available to order from Three’s Bees online from their Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/threesbees55.

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