{"id":3136,"date":"2025-03-18T17:24:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T22:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/?p=3136"},"modified":"2026-02-03T23:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:25:20","slug":"ag-valuation-questionnaire-collin-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/?p=3136","title":{"rendered":"Ag Valuation Questionnaire &#8211; Collin County &#8211; 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Clients in <strong>Collin County<\/strong> now have a questionnaire to fill out for their annual ag valuation for honeybees.\u00a0\u00a0 Here are some of the answers I can provide for you for filling that out &#8211; for properties where I am managing bees on your land:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>When did you obtain equipment<\/strong> &#8211; (when placed on your property &#8211; each property\/client will have a different start date)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Type of Bees<\/strong>:\u00a0 Apis Mellifera (european honeybee)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Who&#8217;s the 3rd party bee wrangler<\/strong>:\u00a0 Harmony Hollow Apiary \/ Rex Smith<\/li>\n<li><strong>Education<\/strong> &#8211; Texas Master Beekeeper Program + I teach classes for several bee schools in central Texas, and am active with Trinity Valley Beekeepers Assn. in Dallas<\/li>\n<li><strong>Queen Replacement<\/strong> &#8211; When signs of low population or behavior that is not conducive to management (i.e. excessively aggressively defensive, or no VSH qualities, etc)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Africanized bee prevention<\/strong>:\u00a0 See above answer for queen replacement<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fire ant prevention<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0 Has not been an issue.\u00a0 Granules such as Amdro are fine for placing on the ground under the hive stands, though.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Planting \/ Pollination<\/strong> : I&#8217;d suggest you have a garden so the bees can pollinate food for human consumption, or production of food for human consumption (i.e. honey).\u00a0 Texas property tax code states: &#8220;\u201cthe use of land to raise or keep bees for pollination or for the production of human food or<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> other tangible products having a commercial value<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 &#8211; which is what is stated in the Texas Tax code for bees for ag &#8211; pics of a garden or field are good documentation for you to have)\u00a0 I also have a page on my website with a list of fantastic plants that benefit from the bees &#8211; and provide food for humans and other wildlife.\u00a0 It&#8217;s pretty specific to each individual property &#8211; so you&#8217;ll need to provide that answer for your land.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Relocation of hives<\/strong>:\u00a0 Done if needed to do utility work or if they are a nuisance to neighbors.\u00a0 I try to eliminate the need for moving in the beginning placement by not having them near property lines where there is a structure nearby.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Winterizing:<\/strong>\u00a0 In Texas &#8211; we simply make sure they have ample honey \/ syrup stores left on the hives in the Fall as we enter winter &#8211; and I supplement with nutrition sugar bricks.\u00a0 Winter losses are expected, and are replaced in spring as soon as bees are available for placing on properties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Expected harvests:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Bees ( more livestock) are the most common harvest<\/span>, queens, honey &#8211; if excess is produced, and possibly wax are also produced.\u00a0\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> Note that the lives and health of the bees is FIRST in my management &#8211; and honey production is not &#8220;expected&#8221; &#8211; but is great if it happens.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Expected production<\/strong>:\u00a0 (presuming a question for honey: ) Unknown each year.\u00a0 Depends on flowers, rainfall frequency and amount, and heat, as well as available nearby forage.\u00a0 Strong colonies are used to create more hives to help cover upcoming expected winter losses.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How I&#8217;m making my product.<\/strong>.. &#8211; Honey (if produced) is extracted and sold.\u00a0 Wax is melted with a solar wax melter, and used to re-coat foundation for the hive frames.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 More livestock is made by producing splits from strong colonies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prevention and control of diseases<\/strong>:\u00a0 Small Hive Beetle (SHB) Traps are added to most hives.\u00a0 Wax moths are watched for &#8211; and excess space is minimized for the bee populations.\u00a0 Periodic testing for mite load &#8211; and treatment with Oxalic Acid and \/ or ApiGuard.\u00a0 Long-Term &#8211; queen genetics that provide the ability to deal with disease is optimal &#8211; but until then &#8211; treatments are utilized when needed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Transport Permits<\/strong>:\u00a0 &#8211; As of 2023 legislative session &#8211; TAIS no longer issues intrastate transport permits.\u00a0 They do maintain a list of beekeepers of reference for each property &#8211; and I have listed myself as beekeeper for all my clients&#8217; properties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Other Documentation \/ Evidence:<\/strong>\u00a0 The questionnaire mentions photos.\u00a0 Take pics of the hives!\u00a0\u00a0 (Better to over-document!!) I&#8217;ll try to take pics when I open the hives and can text those to you periodically.\u00a0\u00a0 Otherwise &#8211; pics of the hives can be used &#8211; best, though, of you can discern bee activity at the entrance.\u00a0 Be safe around the hives, though &#8211; I&#8217;ll take pics when I am there to manage the bees.\u00a0\u00a0 Feel free to provide a copy of our Colony Management Agreement &#8211; or the Land Access Agreement.\u00a0\u00a0 Those are written to continue on a quarterly basis after the contract dates end &#8211; so if you would like a freshly dated contract &#8211; let me know and we can sign a fresh copy.\u00a0\u00a0 I also provide at the end of each year &#8211; an Annual Synopsis for each client &#8211; where I show how many hives are on a property, and what was produced that has commercial value.\u00a0 ( honey, nucleus colonies, queens, etc).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clients in Collin County now have a questionnaire to fill out for their annual ag valuation for honeybees. Here are some of the answers I can provide for you for filling that out &#8211; for properties where I am managing bees on your land:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p> When did you obtain equipment &#8211; (when placed on your [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[847,96,97,98,15,877,107],"tags":[1027,1028,541,524,961,363],"class_list":["post-3136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ag-valuation","category-bee-yard","category-bee-yard-projects","category-beekeeping","category-harmony-hollow-apiaries","category-newsletter","category-texas-master-beekeeper","tag-beekeeping-questionnaire","tag-birds-and-teh-bees-apiary","tag-collin-county","tag-harmony-hollow-apiary","tag-laura-winters","tag-rex-smith","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ze45-OA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3136"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3544,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136\/revisions\/3544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}