There is a commercial fellow in Littlerock area. Somebody up in California City took bees out of a trailer a few years back - I don't know to what extent he's involved. If you come over closer to the coast, there's a large operation off Highway 126 in Piru - Chip's Bees (formerly Bennett's Honey Farm). There is a club here in Ojai, and there is another large commercial operation in Camarillo - Jubilee Honey Company. LA has plenty of beekeepers, you'll have to find the clubs, though. Ask L.A. Honey Company for who has bees. There is a Mann Lake dealer in Bakersfield, and a Dadant store in Fresno. One guy who sells bees is in Porterville.

Good luck.

 

Welcome to Bee Source, B sweet!

Maybe you have the bad luck this year.
One member here has mentioned that his bees left their
hives on many occasion. Losing many hives year after year on the
same spot. So I'm thinking either the new beekeeper don't
know how to take care of them or they just don't like the location and environment
that they are in. An example would be the grass is greener over the other side.
One you tube vid documented how an AHB colony migrated to the far mountain on the
greener fields in anticipation of an up coming summer dearth. This time headed by a newly mated queen they just
pick up one day and began their journey. How they know before the dearth hits is still
a mystery to me. Around here I try to plant as many different bee favorite plants for them.
Hoping that one day they will not do that to me. So far everything is still in my yard. Trying
to make contact with a local small farmer to put my split nuc hives on his farm. They should be
happy with a nearby nursery 4 minutes bee time away and open fields of flowering plants there. So what is your bee environment like this year? And how do you plan to improve for them after identifying whatever issue is at hand?
You can keep on buying bees but if they don't stay after the winter or before the Autumn then you are wasting
your own resources and making others richer. What other bee problems are plaguing them through out the 4 seasons? And what can the beekeeper do to improve upon their ability to stay longer?