Drange Apiary, Inc

10/21/2026

What are we doing Wednesday. Andy and Spencer are moving bees all night long from their locations/bee yards and moving them to the stock pile yard. The bees then are loaded onto semis and sent to Idaho and put in a shed till January. The shed is temperature and humidity controlled. We have 11 semi loads we are shipping out of here in the next week. First load is going out tonight. Bees are moved at night since they are all in the hive. They will be loaded on the semi at night and unloaded by morning before sun light.

10/20/2026

These two have been advocating for bees and agriculture since they were little. This was at Montana Fair.

10/17/2026

Spencer is now the President of the Montana State Beekeepers Association for the next 2 years. Andy has been the Treasure of the Association for 20 years. Jodie will be doing the secretary duties. Please congratulate Spencer and wish him well. We are proud of him.

10/15/2026

Check out Swanky Roots

10/14/2026

What are we doing Wednesday.. The weather took a turn so the guys have gone back to shop work till the weather allows them to work bees again. Andy plans to start stock piling them to start shipping them out next week. You will see from the pictures there is no lack of work to be done. Thursday and Friday we have the MT state Beekeepers Association meeting in Billings.

10/07/2026

What are we doing Wednesday. The guys are still getting the bees ready to go into the shed. Since we have gotten so many new followers we thought we should reintroduce ourselves.
Andy and Jodie Drange are the owners. Andy started in bees in 1980 for a 4-H project. After high school he went to The Ohio State University and got a degree in Commercial Beekeeping. It was there he met Jodie who was studying Agricultural Research and Lab science. She was from Akron,OH. Jodie followed Andy back home to Big Timber, MT, then they moved to Billings before making their home in Laurel. Andy worked for the State of MT as a bee inspector for a while then for another beekeeper for 15 1/2 years till in 2010 when able to buy their own full time beekeeping operation. The years leading up to being full time they had a small beekeeping operation selling honey for over 30 years at the farmers market.
Jodie besides keeping books for the business she is busy advocating for agriculture and bees. She does school talks, social media, and tours. She is currently the President of the Yellowstone Co. Farm Bureau and in the REAL Montana leadership program.
Jodie and Andy have two kids Jasmine and Spencer. Jasmine is married to Chris and they live in the area. Jasmine is a school counselor and working on her masters. Spencer works for the bee business and will take it over one day.

09/30/2026

What are we doing Wednesday. We are getting bees ready to ship to the potato cellars in ID in the next couple weeks. This year our honey crop wasn’t what we hoped for. In MT we hope to get 80-100lb avg. We were in the 50 lb range. So it could have been worst.
We did have something interesting with our honey. First pull was the lighter color but it got darker as the season went on. So why did this happen?
1. Stressed plants produce a darker honey.
2. It was a hot summer so bees have to work hard to keep their hive cool. Hot honey can become darker.
3. Due to the drought different plants bloom causing a different color and flavor.
4. All of the above.
Our honey is still raw, pure honey. We save the lighter honey for bottling. The darker honey does have a unique taste the has a tart bite to it.

09/25/2026

Shout out to one of the stores we have our honey in! Congratulations Frae and Tyffani

Thank you to Billings Chamber of Commerce for a FUN event with the Business Excellence Awards featuring keynote speaker Tom Turcich

We were presented with the 2026 Small Business of the Year Award for our expansion concept in Downtown Billings Frae Collective by Frae Everyday Goods

In a room full of local big hitters like Marsh McLennan Agency - Northwest KOA MasterLube
Kinetic Marketing & Creative A&E + SMA Design The Billings Gazette Intermountain St. Vincent Regional Hospital Edward Jones MetraPark and so MANY MORE - we are HONORED for our small business to receive this recognition 🙏🏻💕

09/23/2026

What are we doing Wednesday. The extraction plant got pressured washed and put to rest till next year. The guys are out getting bees ready to stock pile by making sure they are healthy and have enough feed. Andy and Spencer have been moving bees to stock piles and shipping the bees we leased this year back to CA. Jodie spent 3 days in leadership training with the REAL Montana program. It’s still National Honey Month so here is more honey facts.