Heart of Texas Honey®

Honey Where Your Heart Is

Picture of Bee on Horsemint flower

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Heart of Texas Honey, born in June of 2017, was given by God to Carolyn in spite of herself. Carolyn's beekeeping journey started when her daughter, after hearing her express interest in beekeeping, paid for her to go to a beekeeping conference with one of her daughter's co-workers. From that date, Carolyn attended every bee conference she could, learning and researching in the hope of keeping bees some day.

 Honey is a product where the average person can purchase the "best in the world" because the best honey for you is local honey.  So, it turns out that "Honey Where Your Heart Is" is the best general purpose honey for you.  Next, you must know your beekeeper to ensure that their honey is as pure and uncontaminated as possible.  You can  learn more about Heart of Texas Honey at Who is Your Honey?

In 2016, Carolyn began purchasing and building wooden ware in anticipation of getting bees the next year. God put her on a property where she was able to pursue swarm collection. Researching all best practices in swarm collection, she put out 21 traps the next year and had 14 or 15 hives by the end of the year. The first swarm caught violated almost all of the recommended best practices for catching swarms. For more information about her journey, including pictures and videos, go to Feeding Feral Bees. It turns out that it is easier to manage feral colonies without chemical intervention because they are aclimated to the local environment and have developed habits which make them less susceptible to pests. In the bee world, they say that these are hygenic bees.

Currently located in Robertson County, Texas, she has +- 17 hives. The location of the Apiary is ideal because of the low agricultural chemical use on the surrounding land. The sandy belt is part of the Post Oak Savannah area and wildflowers are abundant.

Carolyn is a chemical free beekeeper, her bees are "hygienic" and/or resistant. This means they have certain behaviors that eliminate or reduce pests in the hive. All but one of her hives are "Africanized" but they are surprisingly calm. TAMU used her bees for a research project and she was given their genetic information from that research; hence the certain knowledge that they are "Africanized."

Care and Keeping

Bees have been taking care of themselves since the beginning of time. Like all animals we "domesticate," some interventions help when we confine and attempt to control them. However, minimal intervention is my strategy. Keeping an eye on the bees and noticing when activity declines can be critical to saving a hive which has undergone some negative event. When hives swarm, the old queen leaves with about half of the workers and a new virgin queen replaces her mother. The virgin queen must go on mating flights and approximately 10% of queens do not return. In this case, the remaining bees are doomed. They have no brood because the former queen quit laying some time ago to "slim up" and get ready to swarm with her girls. This means there are no more suitable aged larvae to make a new queen. Timely intervention can save that hive.

Very Full Hive "Bearding"

Typical guest room

Bees "beard" in the summer when their population is robust and it is hot.

Spring 2023

One particularly lovely sunrise upon the source of all the deliciousness.

2017 Honey Crop

1st Honey Crop

2017 Harvested enough to send to TAMU for pollen analysis. My first honey crop!