Buzz surrounds new bee business
<p>Wade and Lisa Foley in their newly opened Tamarack Apiaries on Friday, April 15, in Kalispell. The store opened on March 1. Lisa Foley said they took a year of talking and planning prior to opening. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Wade Foley holds up a piece of honeycomb to show the pattern in the newly opened Tamarack Apiaries on Friday morning, April 15, in Kalispell. Foley said bee keeping had become a “consuming passion” for him. When considering whether or not to open the store he found some statistics that indicated that Montana ranks in the top ten of states producing honey and that 75% of that comes from the Flathead Valley. His wife, Lisa Foley, said the more people they talked to about the idea of a store for bee keeping the more excitement built. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Build-your-own bee box supplies line the shelves at Tamarack Apiaries on Friday, April 15, in Kalispell. The store opened on March 1. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
There’s a buzz in the air, and it’s growing louder each day. As bees begin to swarm gardens and fields nearby, the owners at Tamarack Apiaries say their new store is a hive of activity.
Wade and Lisa Foley opened Tamarack Apiaries on March 1. Wade is still a contractor in the area. Lisa has been a stay-at-home mom with their 14 children.
Wade said he and Lisa made a move to create their own bee supply store out of frustration over finding equipment and getting information. In 2014, Montana was the second-largest honey producing state in the United States. About half of that honey, according to Wade, comes from the Flathead Valley.
“That’s what got us into beekeeping,” he said. “There’s that much production here in the valley and there’s no bee supplier. That’s what got us to start digging into the store.”
Last month, the Foleys opened Tamarack Apiaries on Conrad Drive across from Woodland Park. They set the store up with beekeeping suits, fully constructed hives and even materials for keepers to build their own hives.
There’s no such thing as an average beekeeper, Wade said.
They have sold supplies to doctors, lawyers, rich or poor. People from every walk of life have strolled through the store to start up their own hives.
Wade initially found bees after a 25-year career as a contractor. He’s only able to operate the bee supply store in a part-time capacity, but he hopes to transition out of contracting in the next few years.
Before long, the new hobby store took a turn the Foleys didn’t expect. As the only apiary supply store in the valley, the buzz grew louder and customers were soon looking for more retail items. At the same time, beekeepers approached the store looking for an outlet to sell their bee products such as honey and soaps.
“The ones who don’t go to the farmers markets don’t have anywhere to sell it,” Wade said. “We’re filling a middle-man position, so to speak. That’s something we didn’t envision.”
The other unexpected demand was in education about beekeeping. Wade and Lisa have only been beekeeping for two years and didn’t expect anyone to reach out to them for expertise. But they both dove into research to get where they are today.
“My first year of beekeeping, I basically went to college online,” Wade said.
Looking to offer something to the bee community, Wade volunteered to teach a class at last month’s Free the Seeds event at Flathead Valley Community College.
“I taught one class and it was very positive,” he said. “The whole education aspect of classes was another thing that wasn’t really on our scope but obviously there’s a need for it.”
They’ll try to fill that niche, reaching not only the Flathead Valley but also Western Montana, Lisa said. For them, it’s all about creating that space for the beekeeping community to make connections.
“Our goal is to bring the equipment here and bring the education here,” she said. “We’ll have classes arranged for new beekeepers, all the way up to experienced things like splitting a hive or whatever little niche.”
Starting Tamarack Apiaries has been a frenzy for the Foleys, who are still feeling out the bee business. The family keeps six hives, housing approximately 40,000 bees in each hive, at their home just outside Kalispell. They get a portion of their bees from a supplier in Washington and some from Murdoch’s in Kalispell.
The Foleys hope to soon be able to sell bees at the store.
Wade said they usually seek out bees that haven’t been transported to California, where suppliers send their colonies in hopes they’ll survive the winter. But Wade said the transportation alone is enough to potentially wipe out two thirds of the hive.
“The transport of bees itself takes a toll on them, just because of the road trip,” he said. “They can get introduced to all kinds of sicknesses.”
Wade said he plans to breed bees that can survive the harsh winters in Montana to save him the death rate and cost of shipping his bees from Washington.
For now, Tamarack Apiaries has to get over the beginning growing pains each new company deals with. The couple still is getting established in the market: finding outlets to buy supplies at wholesale prices and finding local producers to fill their shelves. Even getting the store together has been a chore.
But the market is there, ready to be pollinated by the bee people in the Flathead Valley.
“Just like anybody, we have the start-up phase to go through,” Lisa said. “It’s been fun, though. It’s a ton of work and it’s still in progress. We have a long ways to go but that’s part of what makes it fun.”
For more information, visit www.www.bees4u.net.
Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.