Welcome Family, Friends and those who just found us!!!
Our Beginnings....
We are a family of beekeepers and would like to share our history with those that may be interested. Our beginnings started around the Great Depression with my grandfather, Ralph Jasper Warne, who was a commercial beekeeper that traveled from Minnesota and North and South Dakota, to Colorado and eventually down to South Texas every year. Beekeeping was a lifestyle for the whole family as all 5 kids helped in some capacity. Unfortunately, the family business ended when my grandfather passed away on January 3, 1990. For almost 10 years the equipment set dormant until I decided to start using them again in 1999. My influence to start beekeeping again, was due to my craving for pure, raw, and unfiltered honey. I'm now proud to admit that it has been one of the best decisions I've made because I'm able to share this awesome product of nature with family, friends and those of you who just found us. Please visit our Products page to see what varities that we currently offer.
Our Adventures in 2010....(post on 12-8-2010)
Wow, beekeeping is sure fun, but a lot of work. I've really enjoyed this past year as we tried new avenues in beekeeping. I would like to mention the 2 major ones that we ventured on this year. The first one was our sells events. We went to Farmers Markets, Trade Days, Earth Days, GO Texan activities and finding locations that would carry our honey for sale. I have to say that it was very challenging sometimes but I believe, at the end of the year, I can say that it has been worth it. I have enjoyed talking to every customer about our products and answering their questions. I found a lot of opportunities to share my past experiences and knowledge with many of my customers. Several of them had some good business advise and tips that I really appreciate and I'm doing what I can to make sure my little bee business is on top of it's game.
The next avenue that I want to mention is the pollination contracts that I was able to fulfill this year. Thanks to one of my friends in the beekeeping industry, I was able to get in touch with a farmer from Roby, Texas that needed a few hives for his seedless watermelon fields. The contract was a good one as I was able to pull 2 different types of honey off those fields. The first one was my watermelon honey and the other was cotton. I am very pleased with the taste and color of both honey pulls and also the shape and condition of my honey bees when I brought them back. From the farmer's perspective, he advised that he had more melons per vine this past year than he ever had in the past. We have already started discussing next year's contract and I'm looking forward to doing it again.
Things to keep an eye on in our website....
Hopefully within the next year, I will update our website with small video clips and maybe a picture gallery to help bring our beekeeping experiences alive for you (our friends, family members, and customers). After some research on payment methods, I have found a way to accept credit cards but we will not utilize online purchases. Right now, just myself or my wife is setup to take credit cards through our iphone on an application called square. Really neat little device and eventhough it costs me to use it, it is much cheaper than any other method. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for stoping by and feel free to send me an email if you would like a specail kind of honey, have an idea for my website, or even a business thought you would like to share.
AP Warne
