I'm looking for places to keep bees

[Benjamin Howard]

Hello everyone, In supplement to my new found love for organic gardening I am now a beginning beekeeper as well. I got started this spring and had a great season. I would like to increase my colony numbers and sell honey next fall. I thought that  to place colonies at the gardens of people throughout the community who have room for it would be a great way to play a greater role in the 1000 new gardens endeavor. This would greatly increase the foraging capacity of my apiary while you reap the pollination benefits.
I look forward to your interest or ideas.

[Maximillian Smith]

What a cool vision...we definitely need someone to begin harpin' on a 1000 New Beehives project! They say backyard chickens are the gateway drug to many groovy homespun ag. projects, but I may beg to differ if people start waking up to Colony Collapse Disorder by propagating new lineages of beelings and taking it to some beautiful logical ends!

I'm going to send people your way, Ben, and to this discussion every chance I can...

Until we get responses, please check out this forum from PERMIES.com -- these Missoulians seem to be looking for a bee activist such as yourself and may have some great ideas to share!

[Maximillian Smith]

Response from Casey Delphia...native pollinator extraordinaire:

Thanks for passing this along. Looks interesting, but got me thinking about whether this would be a good idea for native bees? Honey bees, which are non-native, have been shown in some cases to compete with native bees for floral resources and it's possible that introducing a lot of hives throughout the community may have negative effects for native bees. Don't know, but just a thought.

Had you considered this and can you give us an update on where you're at with this project?

[Benjamin Howard]

I had not considered this however I cannot imagine it being an issue as I am only thinking about less than 20 colonies spread out across the Bozeman valley. That brings to mind another point which I failed to mention in my initial post. I live in Belgrade and would be doing this in the Gallatin valley, sorry for that confusion. Back to the issue at hand, I don't think that what I want to do would pose enough competition with native bees to be a problem. I will look into it though, if anyone out there knows something to offer to this question, I welcome the chance to learn from you.
As to an update on this project I am a bit surprised to find a general lack of response. I am now assuming that I will have to beat the streets in order to find willing participants. I think one of the biggest hurdles will be educating people on the fact that bees are not out to sting and mame. People seem to fear bees when they should love them for what they do in the world.
I thank you for your interest and look forward to more discussion.

[Jaime Saunders]

Hello! Yea!! You're just the person I've been looking for. I have 3 properties (1 personal and 2 rentals.) I would love to have bees on them. The addresses are as follows: My home is 525 W. Harrison St./909 W. Olive/704 W. Curtiss. My home and the Olive property have gardens. The Curtiss property is not currently being gardened, but I hope someone will pick it up again. You may call me as well, or reply to my personal email at: [e-mail]

Jaime

[Maximillian Smith]

Morning Benjamin,

 

Also--there are also at least two more spaces to expand into, that I know of, and potentially one more up Bracket Creek. 

 

If you're still not getting the support you'd like on the West side of town, would you consider these opportunities in Bozeman?