Our Story: Ten Boxes, One Family, and a North Texas Beekeeping Business

Ten Box Bees started in 2017 with ten hives and a simple idea: learn the craft, take care of the bees, and build something useful for the landowners and communities around us. Those first ten boxes eventually gave the company its name.

From public service to the bee yard

Founder William Simmons spent 18 years in law enforcement and is a veteran. Beekeeping began alongside that career, but the work grew steadily—from a handful of colonies, to commercial apiaries, to managing hundreds of hives on landowner properties across North Texas.

The habits that mattered in public service carried directly into the bee business: show up when you say you will, keep good records, solve problems before they grow, and take responsibility for the work.

A family-built business

Ten Box Bees is not a faceless corporation. It is a family business built around our home, our farm, and the people who share the work and the sacrifices that come with growing an agricultural operation. My wife and children have watched the business grow from ten hives into a commercial beekeeping company, and our family remains at the center of why we are building it.

Our goal is bigger than simply owning more hives. We want to create a durable family business connected to the land, teach people where real food comes from, support pollinators, and leave something meaningful for the next generation.

What Ten Box Bees has become

Today Ten Box Bees manages roughly 900 honey bee colonies and serves more than 75 landowner clients across North Texas. Our core service is fully managed honey bee leasing for Texas 1-d-1 agricultural appraisal, but the operation also includes live bee sales, local honey, classes, beekeeping equipment, and hands-on education.

Managed bee leasing

We place and manage colonies on qualifying landowner properties, perform routine inspections, maintain the colonies, replace normal losses, and provide service documentation. County Appraisal Districts make the final agricultural-valuation decisions; our job is to operate the bees professionally and document the work.

Live bees and queens

Each spring we produce five-frame nucs and queen bees for Texas beekeepers. These are the same kinds of colonies and management practices we rely on in our own operation.

Local North Texas honey

Our production colonies forage across North Texas landscapes filled with wildflowers, mesquite, clover and seasonal bloom. The result is honey that reflects the place and the season rather than a standardized factory product.

Teaching the next beekeeper

Hands-on classes at the honey farm give new beekeepers the chance to work real colonies, learn how to read a hive, and understand what it takes to keep bees healthy through a Texas season.

Why we still call it Ten Box Bees

The company is far beyond ten hives now, but the name keeps us connected to the beginning. Every large operation starts small. Ten Box Bees is a reminder that the first ten boxes mattered—and that steady work, repeated over years, can turn a side project into a family business.

Where we work

We are based in Burleson and operate across Johnson, Tarrant, Parker, Hood, Hill, Somervell, Wise and Montague Counties. Our landowner routes include communities around Fort Worth, Cleburne, Granbury, Glen Rose, Weatherford, Hillsboro, Decatur and Bowie.

Come see what we are building

Whether you own land and need managed bees, want to start your first hive, are looking for local honey, or simply want to learn more about how a commercial apiary works, you are welcome here.

Request a landowner property evaluation | Shop live bees | Shop local honey