Profile

What a long strange trip it’s been......., I grew up in the Chatsworth area of the San Fernando Valley. I studied architecture and alternative energy structures at UCSB but ended up working in the solar energy field for about the next 15 years. While working for a solar energy company up in Healdsburg, in Northern California, I began keeping bees part time. My bee company was called Cox Apiaries until I met my wife, Teri, and we moved to Ojai, and had a couple of kids. We have two daughters one in Matilija, and one just started Nordhoff.

Our beekeeping company is now Ojai Valley Bee Farm and we sell honey at the farmers’ markets and do crop pollination, we also make a line of beeswax based cosmetics. We have bees here in Ojai, in the east end of the valley, and work closely with the growers of Ojai Pixies Tangerines. We also have bees in the Fillmore area and in Camarillo we pollinate raspberries. Every year at the beginning of February all the bees get collected up and moved to the Almond pollination in the San Joaquin Valley.

I have very strong ties to the ocean with surfing and diving. Have explored many areas of Baja California and lived with Mexican family in San Jose’ del Cabo. Though I love Baja, I want to explore our own Channel Islands, and I am currently working with others to build a ocean farming enterprise somewhere in the Channel, possibly raising white sea bass. When I’m not looking after the bees I enjoy machining parts on my lathe, and building boats.

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