Bees

We got started with our first hives in 2016. We started off with two Nucleus hives and the book, beekeeping for dummies. Our cousin JD bought some hives the previous year and piqued our interest in the amazing new world.

Beekeeping in Montana has turned out to not be for the faint of heart. We have had some huge losses and some small successes over the years. It is a constant learning adventure, with so many curve balls. We have raised a variety of breeds of honeybees including, Italians, Carniolans, Russians, and Saskatraz bees. We like to keep a mix or variety of them as they each have their own merits.

The plan was to have enough hives to be able to market to small orchards on the west coast for pollination contracts and maybe make a little honey in Montana in the nicer months. We have found that while raising cattle and sheep that the bees get put on the back burner a lot. Which makes it nearly impossible to grow our venture past 25 hives. We have decided that this is alright for us as we enjoy the bees but overwintering them in Montana is challenging enough that we don’t see our numbers growing to be sustainable.

We decided to sell our Honey locally and to keep anywhere from 10-25 hives a year. We like to purchase bees from a variety of people, and our year is spent trying to keep them happy and alive. We treat our bees for mites in the spring and in the fall. And supplemental feed them when food is not readily available. Other challenging pests to the bees include wax moths, mice, and our long and cold Montana winters.