Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire So THAT's what those buildings are for

A couple miles down the road from me are these large buildings that were built in the last couple of years. I assumed they were for potato storage as there are many others like that around here. There's no sign out front to identify them. Then this article appeared in today's paper. Now we know. Very interesting.



Q: There are three buildings on 3700 North that store bees through the winter. How?

A: “We use our buildings to over-winter bees that come from all over the U.S.,” said Tenney Lamoreaux, manager of Bee Storages in Filer. “The bee death rate in the U.S. is nearing crisis levels. Our bee storage warehouses help beekeepers protect and save thousands of bee colonies each year. We are the first to build buildings for the singular purpose of saving bees.”

Bees are dying because of “changing farming cultural practices and Varroa mites.” According to BeeAware, Varroa mites are external parasites that mainly feed and reproduce on larvae and pupae, causing “scattered brood, crippled and crawling honey bees, impaired flight performance, a lower rate of return to the colony after foraging, a reduced lifespan and a significantly reduced weight of worker bees.”

Crops are dependent on pollination from bees.

“Our climate-controlled Bee Storages maintains the environment inside the builds precisely where the bees need it to be to safely spend the winter months dormant,” Lamoreaux said. “This allows them to rest and heal and prepare for spring. We help our beekeepers save as many as 30% more of their bee colonies that they were previously losing each year.”

The loss rate at Bee Storages is on average 10%.

“We have about 120,000 square feet of climate-controlled storage, which is contained at 40 degrees,” Lamoreaux said. “The bees are dormant inside the building. They are insulated to maintain the temperature and to protect the bees from the elements.”

The three warehouses can house 115,000 colonies, as many as 13 billion bees.

“Our beekeepers come from all over the U.S.: North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, Texas and California,” Lamoreaux said. Most commercial beekeepers pay trucking companies to ship their bees to warm-weather states like California or Texas.

The company used potato storage equipment and technology to convert it to storing bees with commercial refrigeration units to keep the temperature low. Building began in 2016 with completion in 2019.

“During the spring and summer months, we use the buildings to store RVs and boats,” he said. “Customers that want to protect their RVs or boats from the sun or don’t have room to keep them at their house, bring them to us for temporary storage. Our buildings have very tall ceilings and huge doors making it possible to store boats and RVs indoors without taking anything apart.