To mark World Bee Day on May 20, Lawn Love ranked 2023’s Best States for Beekeeping .
How does North Carolina stack up in some key metrics (1st = Best)?
Average Annual Colony Loss – 6th
Average Price per Pound of Honey – 3rd
Number of Farmers Markets – 5th
Number of Beekeepers Associations – 1st
To come up with their social media ranking, they compared 39 of the 50 states (with available data) based on four categories. We looked at honey production, colony loss, and apiculture classes, among 15 total metrics.
2023’s Best States for Beekeeping
1 California 55.61 2 14 1 1
2 New York 48.06 9 3 2 2
3 North Dakota 40.98 1 4 35 36
4 Texas 36.89 3 19 6 16
5 Ohio 35.75 11 33 3 5
6 Pennsylvania 35.15 27 6 4 15
7 Florida 34.16 5 17 10 14
8 North Carolina 33.72 15 7 7 7
9 Virginia 31.88 28 2 9 8
10 Illinois 30.31 25 1 12 24
11 Michigan 28.88 23 32 5 21
12 Washington 26.45 18 24 11 10
13 Missouri 25.17 12 11 18 19
14 Oregon 24.56 10 25 13 28
15 Wisconsin 24.14 20 37 8 26
16 Georgia 23.50 22 17 14 17
17 Colorado 23.12 21 15 17 13
18 Tennessee 22.81 26 9 20 9
19 Montana 22.50 4 23 29 33
20 Indiana 22.46 30 12 15 22
21 Minnesota 22.32 17 21 16 31
22 New Jersey 21.88 24 27 19 3
23 Vermont 20.02 35 5 24 6
24 Kansas 19.78 8 26 27 33
25 South Dakota 19.61 6 28 38 36
26 Alabama 19.31 14 16 26 22
27 Mississippi 18.70 7 29 37 18
28 South Carolina 17.40 33 8 28 20
29 Kentucky 15.97 37 20 22 12
30 Maine 15.94 39 10 23 4
31 Idaho 15.91 19 22 25 31
32 Arkansas 15.15 13 36 31 25
33 West Virginia 13.93 38 13 33 10
34 Iowa 13.86 34 34 21 29
35 Louisiana 11.28 16 39 36 27
36 Nebraska 10.92 29 31 34 36
37 Utah 10.90 32 38 32 29
38 Arizona 10.44 36 30 30 33
39 Wyoming 9.09 31 35 39 36
Where can the location of your colony sweeten or sour your beekeeping journey?
