You arrive at your scheduled stop before your window opens, we hand you your bees, you confirm any balance, and you drive home. The whole transaction takes a couple of minutes. Everything that makes it go smoothly happens before you get there.
Why does arriving early matter so much?
Because the truck cannot wait, and it cannot come back.
A delivery route is dozens of stops across several states on a fixed clock, with living animals in the back. Every minute spent waiting at one stop is a minute taken from the next. Once we leave a location, we're gone — not out of inflexibility, but because there are people two hours down the road who also planned their day around a window.
Plan to arrive 15 minutes before your window opens, not at the end of it.
What should I bring?
- A vehicle you can ventilate. Open windows, or a truck bed. Not a sealed trunk.
- Ratchet straps or bungees. Boxes shift. Secure them.
- Your veil. You almost certainly won't need it. Bring it anyway.
- Payment for any balance — cash, Venmo, or a cashier's check.
- A helper, if you ordered several. Nucs are heavier than people expect.
How will I know exactly when and where?
By email. We confirm routes as they firm up, then send a final confirmation with your stop, date, and time window before we roll.
Check that the email on your order is one you actually read, and add us to your contacts. A missed email is the single most common reason someone misses a pickup.
What if the date changes?
It might. We haul live animals across many states, and weather, supplier timing, and colony health all move dates — sometimes on short notice. We will not run a route on schedule if running it on schedule puts the bees at risk.
If a new date genuinely doesn't work, call us early at (701) 809-0153. We can usually arrange an alternate pickup, hold your bees at our home base, or sell them on consignment. What we can't do is run the route twice.
What if I can't make it at all?
Call as soon as you know. Options get worse the longer you wait, and there are no refunds on missed pickups — a colony that exists is alive and needs a home, and we can't put it back.
What happens right after I get home?
Install as soon as you reasonably can. Bees are fine for a few hours in a cool, ventilated vehicle, but every additional hour in a box is stress they don't need. If you must wait, keep them in shade with airflow — never a closed vehicle in the sun.
Questions about any of this? Call or text us at (701) 809-0153. We're always happy to help, even if you didn't get your bees from us.