Beekeepers unite: Fort Bend hobbyists swarm to save pollinators and cut taxes

Beekeepers unite: Fort Bend hobbyists swarm to save pollinators and cut taxes



Beekeeping is all the buzz in Fort Bend County, where a growing swarm of hobbyists is stepping up to help native bees battle shrinking habitats and invasive species.

Lawn care platform Lawn Love released its 2024 ranking of the best and worst states for beekeeping – placing Texas at No. 4 nationwide. (California took the top spot.)

One beekeeper at the heart of this movement is Danessa Yaschuk, president of the Fort Bend Beekeepers Association and owner of SweetNes Honey Apiaries & Beetique, a bright, boutique- style honey shop in downtown Needville.


What began as a hobby with two hives in her Sienna backyard has grown into a 400-hive operation, placing bees on properties across Fort Bend County, including at the Sugar Land Regional Airport.

“I didn’t even know beekeeping clubs existed when I started 10 years ago,” said Yaschuk, who now lives in Damon with her husband, two sons, and many, many bees. “I went to my first meeting expecting five people. Instead, the room was packed.”

Dayna Druke, owner of 150 hives across Fort Bend County, is part of this growing number of Texans turning to beekeeping for environmental and economic reasons.

The Fort Bend Beekeepers Association usually draws 50 to 60 attendees to its monthly meetings, each with their own unique path into beekeeping.

Originally from Wisconsin, Druke started with just three hives a decade ago to reconnect with her agricultural roots.

“We have some acres here in Rosenberg, and it's nice to cultivate or grow something,” she said.

“Bees are classified as livestock, even though bees aren't traditionally what somebody thinks of as livestock. I started with three hives, which are manageable. You can even put three hives in a neighborhood backyard.”

After more than two decades in the U.S. Army, Jody Taylor could have chosen a quiet retirement. Instead, he picked up a smoker, donned a veil, and started tending to bees.

“I just kind of fell into it,” said Taylor, who is now the Fort Bend County Extension Agent-Horticulture. “It started with one hive and just kept going.”

Taylor manages 115 hives across Fort Bend, Brazoria, and Waller counties.



What are the benefits of local honey?

Local honey offers unique health benefits, potentially reducing allergy symptoms. When bees forage on local flowers, they collect pollen that gets mixed into the honey.

“The pollen is a protein for them, and they feed it to the baby bees,” Yaschuk said. “As they're running around the hive, it kind of accidentally falls into the honey, so the honey ends up with trace amounts of the local pollen. By eating it, it's building up your immune system.”

Honey from other regions won't provide the same localized immune-boosting effect because the pollen comes from different plants, she said. Additionally, local honey is fresher and supports local beekeepers.

Do all bees produce honey?

The bees found in local apiaries are European honeybees (Apis mellifera). Homeowners often discover nests in patios or garages and wonder if there’s honey inside. The answer? Probably not.

“And in many cases, those aren’t even bees – they’re wasps,” Yaschuk says. She frequently responds to calls to remove such nests.

While the European honeybee is not the only kind of bee that produces honey, it is the most well-known, well-studied and commercially significant honey-producing bee. The European honeybee was imported in the 17th century, according to the USDA.

Native bees – nearly 4,000 species across the U.S., according to the USDA – don’t produce harvestable honey, but they play a critical role in pollination and biodiversity.

“Honeybees are definitely not by any measurement, the only type of bee that does pollination, native bees like mason bees and bumblebees are fantastic pollinators,” Druke said.


Yet native bees are often overlooked in conservation efforts because they don’t produce honey, she said.

Bees aren't just for honey — they can lower your property taxes in Texas

With just five acres, property owners in Texas can qualify for reduced land taxes by hosting hives, making beekeeping an increasingly popular option.

Yaschuk, Taylor and Druke place their beehives on other properties for an ag exemption.

“I didn't want to have 400 hives just on my land,” said Yashuk. “That's a lot of bees to have in one area, and so I put them on other people's locations. People need the ag exemptions on their properties. And that's a whole business in itself.”



“We lease beehives to people,” said Taylor. “They pay us to put beehives on their property and manage those beehives, and then they apply with the Central Appraisal District for the ag valuation of their land, so that they're taxed at a much lower rate.”

Demand for pollination services – especially for crops like almonds – is also soaring, said Druke.

“Pollination is big business,” Druke said. “Without bees, for example, almond growers can’t pollinate their crops. Right now, every bee in the U.S. could head to California, and it still wouldn’t meet half the need.”

Still, keeping bees alive remains a challenge. Texas beekeepers lose an average of 30 percent of their colonies each winter, compared to 50 percent nationwide, said Druke. The coldest states suffer far worse losses, prompting commercial beekeepers from Wisconsin and other northern states to “overwinter” their hives in Texas, where the climate is mild and bears aren’t a threat.

How can we help feed the bees?

“Bees like variety in their diet; nobody wants to eat the same thing every day,” said Yaschuk.

In rural areas dominated by monocrops like cotton or sorghum, bees can collect nectar, but the limited diversity makes it harder for them to stay healthy, she said.

Crape myrtles – hardy, showy, and full of colorful blooms – are a popular landscaping choice in Texas, but they do next to nothing for bees, said Druke.

“I’m sure you’ve looked around, especially in Cinco Ranch, there's just nothing but crape myrtles,” Druke said. “If you see bees on crape myrtles, they're desperate because they can't find anything else to eat. However, there's another tree called a vitex (Texas lilac). It’s purple, grows just like the crape myrtle, maybe it’s not as pretty, but it feeds all our native bees.”

Both Yaschuk and Druke said that wildflowers like clover are much better food sources for bees than ornamental plants, which are often treated with chemicals.

Based on USDA data and figures from Texas Beekeeper Association registered apiaries, Fort Bend County has around 400 managed apiaries with at least five colonies each, Druke said.

“Backyard hobbyist beekeepers might just keep one or two hives in their yards and not register their bees,” she said. “ I would guess there were maybe a few thousand feral colonies, give or take. That is a hard figure to guess, but honeybees sure seem to love to live in our native pecan tree cavities.”



If you are interested in taking up beekeeping, local beekeepers say the best way to start is by attending a beekeeper’s meeting.



The Fort Bend Beekeepers Association meets on the second Tuesday of each month at the Bud O’Shieles Community Center in Rosenberg. Founded in 1978, the association now has over 100 dues-paying members. For more information, visit fortbendbeekeepers.org.