Serving Saline County Beekeepers

Beekeeping in Saline County, Arkansas

Arkansas Honeyworks is a beekeeping supply store inside Patina & Grace Flea Market at 17186 US-70 in Benton. Saline County is where we are — not a region we serve at a distance. If you keep bees in Benton, Bryant, Haskell, Shannon Hills, Alexander, or anywhere across the county's unincorporated acreage, we are the closest dedicated beekeeping supply store to your hives.

The county is part of the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area and sits in central Arkansas with a humid subtropical climate. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas notes Richard's Apiaries in Benton as one of the state's established commercial apiary operations — beekeeping has a long presence in this area.

We stock hives, protective gear, varroa treatments, woodenware, feeders, queen rearing supplies, extracting tools, and supplements on the floor. You walk in, see the equipment, ask questions, and walk out the same day. No driving to Little Rock or Scott, no shipping waits.

Climate and forage in Saline County

Saline County is in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8a per the 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map — a shift from Zone 7b on the 2012 map, based on 30-year average extreme minimum winter temperatures between 10°F and 15°F for our area. Humid subtropical climate. Typical last spring frost is mid-March to mid-April; typical first fall frost is late October to early November, with year-to-year variation of weeks in either direction.

General nectar flow timing for central Arkansas (source: UAEX Arkansas Beekeeping Calendar at uaex.uada.edu/bees — individual yards shift this significantly):

• Spring buildup (late February through April): red maple, willows, early ornamental fruit trees, dandelion.
• Main flow (April through June): clover, blackberry, privet in older neighborhoods, tulip poplar in wooded tracts.
• Summer dearth (typically July and August): little nectar available; hives can consume more than they store.
• Fall flow (September and October if conditions permit): goldenrod and asters.

Microclimates and whatever is planted within a two-mile radius of your hives matter more than any regional calendar. Monitor your own frames. The calendar is orientation, not prediction.

Registering your hives with the state

The Arkansas Department of Agriculture Apiary Section requires every beekeeper in the state to register apiary locations, regardless of hive count or whether you consider yourself a hobbyist. Registration is free. The form lives at agriculture.arkansas.gov/crops-industry/regulatory-services/apiary/ or call the Apiary Section at (501) 225-1598.

Arkansas law (Ark. Code § 2-22-110) also requires managed colonies to be kept in hives with movable frames so that state inspectors can check for contagious diseases, and establishes a three-mile pasturage rule for new yards on land you do not own.

Per the Apiary Section's most recent published figures, Arkansas has 4,101 registered beekeepers managing 6,776 apiaries with 62,891 colonies. Saline County beekeepers are part of that population.

Saline County resources for beekeepers

Two resources we regularly point customers to. They do the deep technical education; we stock the equipment.

Saline County Cooperative Extension Service

Physical office at 1605 Edison Ave., Benton. Phone (501) 303-5672. Part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The Saline County office runs the county Master Gardener program (40 hours basic horticulture training plus 40 volunteer hours the first year) and maintains local beautification plantings, including the bed at the Benton Chamber of Commerce. It is the state-sanctioned source for research-based agriculture and pollinator information at the county level.

University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service Apiculture Program

Dr. Jon Zawislak is the state's Assistant Professor of Apiculture & Urban Entomology. Phone (501) 671-2222. Online resources at uaex.uada.edu/bees include free downloadable beekeeping publications, the Arkansas Beekeeping Calendar with month-by-month management guidance, and a self-paced online beekeeping course. This is the authoritative state-level technical resource for Arkansas beekeepers, and it is free.

We sell the equipment that UAEX teaches people to use. Where your question is technical or regulatory, UAEX is typically a better first call than us. Where you need to hold a hive tool before you buy it, come see us.

Common questions from Saline County beekeepers