Little Apiary on the Prairie

08/26/2026

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08/18/2026

What's your mite count? How are you treating?

08/15/2026

Here's a rule that doesn't require a scale, a spreadsheet, or a single record: get your hands under the hive on Halloween and lift.

If it doesn't feel like it's bolted to the ground, you've got a problem — and about a week to fix it with frames instead of syrup.

October 31 isn't an arbitrary date. By the end of October, nights are cold enough that bees can't take syrup and cure it down to something they can cap. Brood rearing has wound down. The cluster is forming for real. A colony that's light on Halloween is light for the winter, because everything you do after that is being done to a colony that's already committed.

We target right around 200 pounds total going into winter — hive, frames, bees, and stores. That's more than most people put on, and it's on purpose. The scenario that kills bees up here isn't January. It's a long winter with a late spring. Bees that run short in March die within sight of the dandelions.

And hitting that number is a summer and early-fall job, not an October one. By the time we're breaking colonies down for winter configuration, the feeding is finished. Anything still short gets made up with capped frames — a topic of its own (that's Part 3 of the series).

Part 1 — why we winter in tall, narrow stacks instead of wide boxes — is up now: https://www.littleapiaryontheprairie.com/blogs/news/why-we-winter-bees-in-a-chimney

(701) 809-0153 if you want to talk it through. Happy to help, even if you didn't get your bees from us.

How we overwinter colonies in four-high five-frame stacks: 20 frames, 15 resource and 5 nest, 200 lbs by Halloween, insulated and facing south.

08/13/2026

2027 bee reservations are open.

Every spring the bees run out before the demand does, so we're opening the list early this year. Package bees, nucleus colonies, and queens — the same Carniolan and Italian stock we've always raised, bred for long northern winters — now with 97 pickup stops across nine states.

New for 2027: we're adding stops in eastern Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. If you've been waiting for us to come your way, this might be the year.

Full pickup schedule and reservation details are at littleapiaryontheprairie.com.

We're always happy to help, even if you didn't get your bees from us.

08/11/2026

A lot of winter dead-outs didn't starve. They starved with honey still in the box.

Pull the frames on an April dead-out and you'll often find capped honey against both outside walls and a dead cluster in the middle. That colony didn't run out of groceries. It ran out of reachable groceries.

Here's the mechanism: in a hard cold snap, a winter cluster eats the honey directly above it and works upward. What it will not do is break cluster and travel sideways across cold comb — even to food eighteen inches away. It'll sit there and starve.

A ten-frame box is a wide, shallow cavity. It asks the cluster to do the one thing it won't do.

So every October we take our double-deep colonies apart and rebuild them as tall, narrow stacks: four five-frame boxes high. Same twenty frames. Same bees. Different shape. Fifteen frames of food, five of nest, with the nest at the bottom — so the colony spends the whole winter eating straight up through the pantry with no lateral moves and no dead ends.

None of this is new. Northern beekeepers have wintered small, narrow cavities for a century in a dozen configurations. This is just where we landed for our winters, and it's the single biggest reason our spring numbers look the way they do.

Part 1 of the full overwintering series is up on the site — the 15/5 ratio, the 200-lb Halloween rule, and how we insulate the row. Link in comments.

Questions? Call or text (701) 809-0153. We're always happy to help, even if you didn't get your bees from us.

05/17/2026

This nuc unfortunately didn't fair well in transit. It over heated, most of the bees cooked and then when we hit temps below freezing there wasn't enough mass to keep the brood warm and it was chilled. In short, it wasn't a quality nuc after all that.

However, it's still a great example to share. You can see that even though there aren’t a ton of bees, and they are queenless, they are going to town opening cells and cleaning up. They are removing all of the dead brood and preparing for new eggs. It's in their DNA to do that.

This is the hygienic behavior we select for in our breeders. This is the quality genetics you should expect.

05/11/2026

Hi there,
Quick update from the road: the Minnesota Department of Transportation was handing out complimentary roadside agricultural inspections today and decided we should have one. That put us about an hour behind on the main route.
Grand Forks and Crookston — already done, no change.
Updated arrival times for the rest of the truck route:
• Bemidji, MN — 12:00 – 12:40 PM — Menards, 2600 Paul Bunyan Dr NW
• Grand Rapids, MN — 2:10 – 2:35 PM — Cole Hardware, 508 NE 4th St
• Cloquet, MN — 3:50 – 4:30 PM — Walmart, 1308 MN-33
• Fridley, MN (TC North) — 6:45 – 7:25 PM — Menards, 5351 Central Ave NE
• St. Cloud, MN — 8:40 – 9:05 PM — Pilot Travel Center, 4231 Clearwater Rd
Van crew times are unchanged — they're on a separate route and not affected.
If your new window doesn't work, reply to this email and we'll work something out — alternative pickup or consignment.
Thanks for hanging with us. We're heading on through.

05/10/2026

Update: We've left Bismarck and are on the way to Jamestown. We expect to be there by 7:20.

Update: As of 10am CDT we are recovering a bit of time antmd are only 60 minutes behind schedule.
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You can't make this stuff up. We'll be running about 90 minutes behind schedule today. Tomorrow's schedule remains unchanged.

05/09/2026

📅 Wave 2 Delivery Schedule — Sunday & Monday, May 10–11
We're back on track. Find your stop, save the address, and we'll see you there. Times are local — heads up on the Mountain → Central time zone change in central ND on Sunday.
🚚 Sunday, May 10 — I-94 Corridor
• Billings, MT — 9:45–10:00 AM MT
Town Pump/Pilot, 2711 N Frontage Rd
• Dickinson, ND — 2:15–2:30 PM MT
Tiger Discount, 2955 I-94 Business Loop E
• Bismarck, ND — 5:00–5:15 PM CT
ONE9 Travel Center, 3936 Miriam Ave
• Jamestown, ND — 6:45–7:00 PM CT
Marathon, 1609 Business Loop E
• Valley City, ND — 7:40–8:00 PM CT
Love's Travel Stop, 1385 8th Ave SW
🚛 Monday, May 11 — My truck
• Grand Forks, ND — 8:00–8:25 AM
Flying J, 4401 32nd Ave S
• Crookston, MN — 8:55–9:10 AM
Walmart, 1930 Sahlstrom Dr
• Bemidji, MN — 10:55–11:35 AM
Menards, 2600 Paul Bunyan Dr NW
• Grand Rapids, MN — 1:05–1:30 PM
Cole Hardware, 508 NE 4th St
• Cloquet, MN — 2:45–3:25 PM
Walmart, 1308 MN-33
• Fridley, MN (TC North) — 5:40–6:20 PM
Menards, 5351 Central Ave NE
• St. Cloud, MN — 7:35–8:00 PM
Pilot Travel Center, 4231 Clearwater Rd
🚐 Monday, May 11 — Van crew
• Detroit Lakes, MN — 9:20–9:35 AM
Menards, 1465 Menard Dr
• McGregor, MN — 12:05–12:30 PM
McGregor High School, 148 S 2nd St
• Brainerd, MN — 2:30–2:50 PM
Fleet Farm, 14114 Dellwood Dr N, Baxter
• Alexandria, MN — 4:05–4:25 PM
Menards, 215 50th Ave W
• Fergus Falls, MN — 5:15–5:30 PM
Fleet Farm, 2002 W Lincoln Ave
• Fargo, ND — 6:45–7:05 PM
Fleet Farm, 3730 36th St S
A few things:
✓ These windows are when we'll be there. Please plan to arrive inside yours.
✓ Can't make Monday? Reply or message us — alternative pickup or consignment is on the table.
✓ Bees are healthy. Big thanks to everyone for sticking with us this week.
Questions? Drop them below. We're always happy to help, even if you didn't get your bees from us.

05/07/2026

Update from Rexburg, ID:
The truck is officially out of commission. We've got a rental lined up first thing tomorrow morning, and then we're doubling back to grab the trailer and pushing on to California.

Here's what that means for delivery:
We'll arrive late Friday, load before the sun comes up Saturday, and run the 27-hour drive home over two days. Deliveries will now start Monday instead of Sunday. Silver lining — that's better timing for anyone with Mother's Day plans on Sunday.

Two crews will still be on the road:
🚐 Van crew: Fargo, Detroit Lakes, Brainerd, Fergus Falls, McGregor, and Alexandria
🚛 My crew: Grand Forks, Crookston, Bemidji, Grand Rapids, Cloquet, Fridley, and St. Cloud
A detailed schedule with arrival times will be posted before we leave California so you know when to be at your stop.

We know this introduces some real inconvenience. If Monday doesn't work, or you can't make it to your designated pickup spot, just let us know. We'll hold your nucs and work with you to arrange an alternative pickup time. One thing to be upfront about — we don't plan to run the full delivery loop a second time, so any alternatives will need to be one-off arrangements.

If a different pickup time isn't going to work either, there's a third option: we can try to sell your bees on consignment. We've still got folks asking for bees, so we'd take a real swing at finding a buyer for you. No guarantees, but it's there if you need it.

To be straight with you: finding a rental that can haul 20,000 pounds of live bees across the country isn't like grabbing a pickup at the local Avis counter. Trucks built for this kind of work are rare, and lining one up takes time. We're sorry for the disruption — and it's exactly the reason we invested in a brand-new truck this year. Turns out brand-new doesn't mean breakdown-proof.

The bees are healthy, our supplier is ready, and we're not stopping until we get them home. Thanks for hanging with us.

Questions? Ask below. We're always happy to help, even if you didn't get your bees from us.