Meet Justin and Kavita Bay and their children, professional beekeepers near Rivulet, Montana. They own and operate Rivulet Apiaries. In fact, the Bays are expanding their operation. They have purchased 10 acres adjoining their property. The new acreage had previously been logged. The acreage is now old, tame pasture and regenerated Ponderosa pine.
“When we got the property, we wanted to improve it. The trees that are there are just neglected. It’s not a healthy forest,” said Justin.
Kavita adds, “It needs some pretty good soil improvement. It’s really compacted soil."
The Bays knew their land needed some help. They contacted the NRCS field office in Missoula, where they worked with fellow beekeeper and NRCS district conservationist, John Bowe.
Read about their experiences in the Helping Bees Helps the Land ArcGIS Story Map. Read a text-only version of this story below.
Watch their story in Conservation for the Future: A Montana Video Series.
High resolution photos of Rivulet Apiaries near Rivulet, Montana.
Helping Bees Helps the Land
Meet Justin and Kavita Bay and their children, professional beekeepers near Rivulet, Montana. They own and operate Rivulet Apiaries.
“This has become our primary occupation in the last few years, so it’s pretty exciting for us to be doing this full time, now,” said Kavita.
In fact, the Bays are expanding their operation. They have purchased 10 acres adjoining their property. The new acreage had previously been logged. “There are pictures 85 years ago of a saw mill sitting in the middle of that property and no trees,” said Justin. Since that time, there has been very little management. The acreage is now old, tame pasture and regenerated Ponderosa pine.
“When we got the property, we wanted to improve it. The trees that are there are just neglected. It’s not a healthy forest,” said Justin.
Kavita adds, “It needs some pretty good soil improvement. It’s really compacted soil.
The Bays Turn to NRCS for Help
The Bays knew their land needed some help, and so did they.
A friend at a farmers’ market told Kavita that the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) had an initiative they might be interested in learning more about. They contacted the NRCS field office in Missoula, where they worked with fellow beekeeper and NRCS district conservationist, John Bowe.
Justin and Kavita signed up for the honey bee pollinator initiative under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The purpose of the special initiative is to help landowners combat declines in honey bee populations by implementing conservation practices that provide forage for honey bees. These same practices also enhance habitat for other pollinators and wildlife.
Honey Bees and Their Decline
Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. More than 3,500 species of native bees help increase crop yields. Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, and beetles and other insects.
According to the 2016-2017 Bee Informed colony loss survey, managed honey bee colonies experienced total annual loss of 30-45% from 2011-2017. The Center for Pollinator Research mentions the difficulty of tracking population changes in non-domesticated species, but says population declines and local extinctions of some species have been documented in Europe and the United States.
NRCS Provides Assistance
“The honey bee pollinator initiative is working with private landowners such as Justin and Kavita to help enhance pollinator habitat, restoring unproductive sites, and increasing the overall habitat for pollinator use,” said Bowe.
“We’re just in the beginning stages,” said Kavita. “John is very receptive and available. I feel like we have somebody walking us through the process, so we don’t have to guess.”
To improve habitat for the apiary’s honey bees as well as native pollinators like butterflies and hummingbirds, the pasture site will be seeded with a mix of species that bloom throughout the growing season so that pollinators always have forage. The overgrown forestland will be thinned to improve the productivity of the understory vegetation, which is utilized by pollinators as well as many other animals that have been spotted such as wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, and elk.
These practices have other collateral benefits. The increased ground cover will lead to a reduced potential for soil erosion as well as increased soil health and soil organic matter. The increased competition will also help to reduce noxious weeds, which will be further controlled by hand-pulling and mowing. The forest thinning will also reduce hazardous fuel buildup.
Learn about plants that can enhance pollinator habitat with Montana Native Plants for Pollinator Friendly Plantings.
Everyone Benefits from the Conservation Work
“We do a lot of this work routinely, but gaining a better understanding of what really benefits pollinators helps us take our assistance to the next level,” said Bowe.
“Getting this grant is really going to allow us to do the work that we were only dreaming of doing and to be able to do it quicker and to have a lot of guidance, so we can be successful in our goals,” said Kavita. “It has opened up doors that were not there for us.”
“Had we been trying to do it on our own, we wouldn’t have had the resources, the technical help, or the funds to look at it as one big project, which will make it more effective,” said Justin.
The Bay’s haven’t only expanded their acreage, they are also building a shop that will allow them to expand from a cottage business into the wholesale market. “It’ll open up a whole new market for us and we’re pretty excited about that,” said Kavita.
Why Bees?
Justin is also excited about bees in general. He says, “They’re the most interesting animal in the world. In a lot of ways, they are like livestock. A wild hive in the woods will probably survive on its own. If you want to have 60 hives, you have to keep diseases in check, keep watch for parasites, you might have to feed them.”
Kavita adds, “They do require a lot of care and attention, which I think, a lot of people don’t realize. We don’t just set them out there and then rob them in the fall.”
“Working with landowners who have bees also taught me that I could be successful on a small scale as a hobbyist. I just have one hive right now, but I’m looking to expand to three next year,” said Bowe.
For More Information
For more information about NRCS conservation technical assistance, contact your local USDA Service Center.
