His father, Bill (that's Bill in the picture), interrupted and said, "We'll keep them on the roof and you'll never know they are here." At the beginning of the next year there were seven hives in the garden!

Bill Jones was totally captivated and still is by the bees. He decided he wanted to know everything there was to know and he "helped" Richard care for the bees. This was easy because Richard was finding new interests daily, studies, girls and a full-time job. Then Ric decided to go to college and Bill bought him out.

Bill decided then that he would get a thousand hives and start building bee boxes. It would turn out to be a full time endeavor in 1975 when he retired from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation where he had worked since college.

Now we have the store we don't keep as many bees, but our son Skip and other members of the family help out with all the jobs.