Long May She Reign Apiary

Long May She Reign Apiary A veteran-owned, family-led apiary and homestead brand rooted in West Michigan.

We’re on a mission to protect the bees, nurture the land, and create wellness from hive to home — one jar, one flower, one buzzing partnership at a time. 🐝

Meet Dionel — aka the Beetender.Keeper of calm(ish), wrangler of bees, and better half (he agrees, don’t worry). 😉 I’m ...
01/10/2026

Meet Dionel — aka the Beetender.
Keeper of calm(ish), wrangler of bees, and better half (he agrees, don’t worry). 😉

I’m the one behind the scenes tending all business things, processing product, bottling honey, and helping make sure the bees are living their best, most regal lives. Equal parts soft and spicy, science-curious and hands-in-the-dirt.

Around here, we believe in doing things with intention, letting nature lead, and building something sweet from the ground up. Bees, blooms, balance.

Welcome to Long May She Reign! 🐝🍯🌻

Slow mornings call for warmth ☀️Two days, start to finish—this floral came together in layers of golden yellow, soft tea...
01/07/2026

Slow mornings call for warmth ☀️
Two days, start to finish—this floral came together in layers of golden yellow, soft teal, and gentle lavender. A little visual vitamin D for the days that need it most.

Made slowly. Meant to be felt. 💛 Feb 1st this one will also be available! (Original or sized prints)

A very Happy New Year, from us and all our bees! 🐝 And now that it’s almost Blizzard status here in Michigan, we get as...
01/02/2026

A very Happy New Year, from us and all our bees! 🐝 And now that it’s almost Blizzard status here in Michigan, we get asked the question… What do bees do all winter?
(Short answer: they don’t sleep — they engineer survival.)

When temperatures drop below ~50°F, honeybees form a winter cluster inside the hive. The queen stays protected in the center while worker bees surround her like living insulation.

🌀 How they survive:
• Bees vibrate their flight muscles to generate heat (no flying involved).
• The cluster tightens when it’s cold and loosens when it warms.
• They rotate positions so no single bee stays on the cold outside too long.
• Heat is fueled by stored honey — their winter pantry.

🌡️ The goal:
Keep the cluster around 90°F near the queen, even when it’s freezing outside.

❄️ What they’re not doing:
No foraging. No honey making. No leaving the hive unless there’s a rare warm day.

Winter isn’t downtime — it’s precision, cooperation, and endurance.
Nature’s quietest season is doing the most work.

🐝 NEW SWAG HAS LANDED 🐝For the queen bees. The hive builders. The women doing the work quietly and fiercely.Earthy tones...
12/19/2025

🐝 NEW SWAG HAS LANDED 🐝
For the queen bees. The hive builders. The women doing the work quietly and fiercely.

Earthy tones, cozy layers, and designs rooted in care—for the land, the hive, and each other.
Because this isn’t just merch. It’s a mindset.

Where my lady bee tenders at? 👀🐝
The ones showing up, tending what matters, and holding it all together.

Wear it to tend the hive, run the errands, or take up space exactly as you are meant to.

✨ Long may she reign. ✨






WomenWhoBuild

🍯 Raw Honey, Backed by ScienceThis isn’t just sweet — it’s bioactive. Naturally pressed honey keeps every enzyme, antiox...
12/05/2025

🍯 Raw Honey, Backed by Science
This isn’t just sweet — it’s bioactive. Naturally pressed honey keeps every enzyme, antioxidant, and micronutrient intact, giving your body what mass-processed honey can’t.

✨ Immune Strength
Raw honey supports the gut microbiome — and since 70–90% of serotonin is produced in the gut, that directly affects mood regulation, stress response, and overall neurological balance.

🍯 Its natural prebiotics may help:
• strengthen immune response
• support serotonin signaling (especially important for ND brains + those on SSRIs)
• regulate inflammation
• soothe sensory overwhelm + stress pathways

🧠 Neurological Support
Polyphenols in raw honey help reduce oxidative stress, support memory, and protect neural pathways.

😴 Better Sleep
Raw honey stabilizes blood sugar overnight + supports melatonin production for deeper rest.

⸻

We still have 30 bottles left of this season’s small-batch honey — aside from what we’ve selfishly tucked away for ourselves and our nightly tea.

We are a fully neurodivergent household over here, so you better believe we’ve stored plenty for the next year (or at least until spring). 🐝✨

8oz — $20
12oz — $35
Pickup or local ship.

Before there were hives in our backyard…Before honey jars lined our counter…Before this gentle, grounded, purposeful lif...
11/24/2025

Before there were hives in our backyard…
Before honey jars lined our counter…
Before this gentle, grounded, purposeful life we’re building together…

There was Shelby — a purebred English yellow lab who sat beside a young Marine in a world far harsher than the one we live in now.

Shelby was more than a dog.
She was a partner, a lifeline, a calm center in chaos. She led several successful missions that found IEDs - And in the process of keeping him alive… she also shaped him.

Nick — the man I get to call my husband — was once the Marine in those dusty boots beside her.
He served in Afghanistan with 3rd LAR, protected senior leaders in the field, graduated at the top of his class as a canine handler, and trained junior Marines as a Martial Arts Instructor. When he came home, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and built a career leading protective operations for families and brands around the world.

But the man?
The man came from Shelby.

She taught him patience, intuition, and to pay attention to the quiet signs — the same way he now listens to his bees.
My She taught him calm, regulation, and the kind of steady presence you don’t just learn… you earn.

And today, this former combat Marine, security director, protector-of-everything…
is also the gentle beekeeper I get to claim!

Our honey exists because Shelby existed.
Because she kept him alive.
Because she shaped the way he moves through the world.
Because she showed him what partnership looks like in its purest form.

So here’s to Nick — the warrior who became a healer.
The protector who became a beekeeper.
The man with a heart strong enough for combat, and soft enough to tend a hive.

And here’s to Shelby — the reason we’re here at all.

To a life rebuilt sweeter than honey. A very Happy Birthday to ❤️

Introducing our Michigan-Made Beeswax Candle ✨🐝Hand-poured with a natural soy + beeswax blend, this candle brings that w...
11/24/2025

Introducing our Michigan-Made Beeswax Candle ✨🐝
Hand-poured with a natural soy + beeswax blend, this candle brings that warm, honey-hugged glow straight into your home.

Crafted in small batches, each candle burns clean, slow, and beautifully—filling your space with a soft, cozy scent that feels like fresh honeycomb and comfort.

This is Tanya’s Edition, created with the same care, intention, and love that goes into our hives. With bees, nothing goes to waste—everything becomes something beautiful.

Perfect for gifting. Perfect for keeping. Perfect for lighting up the darker evenings.

🕯️ Michigan made. Bee-powered. Long May She Reign.

We’re so excited to share that our first batch of naturally strained wildflower honey is now available in limited quanti...
11/21/2025

We’re so excited to share that our first batch of naturally strained wildflower honey is now available in limited quantities!

This golden goodness was slowly filtered with care—no high-speed machinery, no over-processing, just gravity, cheesecloth, and a whole lot of patience. That means every spoonful is packed with its natural enzymes, pollen, and floral richness, straight from the hive.

Perfect for:
✨ Thoughtful holiday gifts
✨ Cozy teas & toast moments
✨ Supporting your immune system the natural way

Plus, when you order a 12oz jar of honey, you’ll get 10% off all Long May She Reign apparel—because what pairs better with sweet local honey than a cozy hoodie and a good cause?

📦 Ships anywhere in the U.S.
📍 Local pick-up in Grand Rapids available

Snag yours before we sell out—because when we say small batch, we mean it. 🐝💛
https://www.longmayshereignapiary.com/store

It’s birthday this weekend! I’m certain he’s forgotten (again) 😜 If you would’ve told either of us five years ago that ...
11/20/2025

It’s birthday this weekend! I’m certain he’s forgotten (again) 😜

If you would’ve told either of us five years ago that we’d end up here — building a life together, raising kids side by side, and running a tiny-but-mighty apiary — we probably would’ve laughed. None of this was in the plan.

Not the bees.
Not this late-in-life love.
Not the way our stories would collide.

Nick and I didn’t meet in the middle of some perfect chapter. We came to each other in real life — full schedules, full responsibilities, full histories. I wasn’t a 20-year-old with a blank slate. I was a 32 yr old mom, a woman rebuilding, someone who had already decided her priority was her kids. Dating wasn’t on my radar. Honestly, neither was marriage.

Then (the irony)

We had both had so many bad dates. So we really didn’t see each other coming, and we really hadn’t made a room in our lives for another person. But one day turned into a weekend which turned into every week moment I had available.

We had hard conversations. Adult mistakes. Complications on both sides. And instead of walking away, we kept choosing to sit down, talk again, try again.
That’s the thing about real love — it doesn’t demand perfection. It asks for participation.

And the bees… the bees feel the same way.

Beekeeping wasn’t in our plan either. It was a “maybe someday” hobby that turned into something grounding and healing. For what I’m quickly finding the beekeeping community is these bees are so easy to become obsessed over! Something that unexpectedly anchored us to the land, to our community, and to each other. Working with honey teaches you that life doesn’t always move in straight lines — it asks for patience, trust, adaptability.

Kind of like marriage.
Kind of like us.

So somewhere between later-in-life love and late-summer honey harvests, I stopped holding on to the idea that I know what comes next. Because the best things that have ever happened to me started with the unexpected — Nick, our family, and now these bees who somehow became part of our story too.

The adventures we’re having are always the ones you never see coming. Forever in a day. 💕

Bottling our honey is a slow, gentle process—just the way nature intended. We let gravity do the work, straining each ba...
11/19/2025

Bottling our honey is a slow, gentle process—just the way nature intended. We let gravity do the work, straining each batch through layered cheesecloth with no heat, no pressure, and no machines. Each 5-gallon batch takes a full day to strain… and we repeat the process three times over several days to keep every natural enzyme, antioxidant, and bit of local pollen intact.

This is why we do small-batch, seasonal releases. Mass-produced honey is often heated and ultra-filtered, which removes the very qualities that make raw honey so powerful—its enzymes, its immune-supportive properties, its allergy-friendly pollen, and its rich natural flavor.

Our honey keeps all of it.
✨ enzyme-rich
✨ full of local pollen
✨ antioxidant packed
✨ pure, raw, and untouched

Because our harvests are limited, our hope is to eventually offer quarterly seasonal releases—and a subscription for those who want pure, small-batch honey delivered right from our hives to your home.

Slow. Local. Natural. And made with so much intention. 🍯🐝 A SMALL RELASE GOING FOR SALE NEXT WEEK!

Address

Grand Rapids, MI
49501, 49502, 49503, 49504, 49505, 49506, 49507, 49508, 49510, 49514, 49515, 495

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