If you own between 5 and 20 acres in Texas, you can save substantial amounts on your annual property taxes by keeping honeybees on your land.

• This applies regardless of whether the landowner directly manages honey bee colonies on the property or if a beekeeper handles them, as the qualification is linked to the land, not the owner. The land must have been used for agricultural purposes for at least five out of the last seven years.
• If your land doesn't have a current AG Exemption, you will first need to document 5 consecutive years (or 5 out of 7 years) of agricultural activity on your land. Then, in Year 6, you can get a tax reduction with the new land valuation.
• If the land already benefits from "Ag Valuation" due to another qualifying activity, such as livestock management, it can switch to beekeeping and maintain the special valuation. This is because it still meets the requirement of five out of the last seven years of qualifying agricultural activity. Since it's the land that qualifies, not the landowner, new owners can also benefit from existing agricultural valuations or past qualifying activities performed by previous owners.

Additional qualifying requirements:

• The property must be suitable for honey bees and beekeeping.
• Open Hands Honey will need unrestricted access to the bees
• A vehicle must be able to access the area where the hives re located and park no further than 20 yards from the hives location.

Open Hands Honey retains the rights of ownership to the bees, the equipment, and the products of the hives.