Comal County Beekeeping Ag Exemption

The required beekeeping plan has seven key requirements. Comal County CAD requires the type of bees, the number of hives, a map showing the hives and the plant life, a list of the vegetation feeding them, a marketing plan, the acreage used for beekeeping including leases, and a note on the bees' migratory habits. Our bees don't migrate. The hives we set on your land stay on your land.

The lease line is the one that matters most here. A managed beekeeping agreement is the document the district requires filed, and it should state the kind of agricultural use, the number of acres, the duration, and the names and signatures of both parties. Comal County CAD takes the state 1-d-1 application and requires its own supplement alongside it. Both are due April 30, and a late one still gets looked at up to roll certification, at a 10 percent penalty.

The land has to be in agricultural use on January 1. Where that use isn't evident, the district puts the burden on the owner to demonstrate a primary intent to run the place agriculturally for the bulk calendar year, and a signed agreement is that kind of evidence. So an agreement in place before the year starts can support the tax year even where the colonies land a little after January 1. None of that happens automatically. You have to show the district the intent, and the hives still have to sit on the property for a bulk of the calendar year. Ask the district what it will take as evidence on your parcel first.

One of those seven requirements is a list of every plant on the place intended to support the hive. We put that list together for you. We walk the property before a hive goes on it and record what blooms and when. On a Comal County place that usually runs from spring wildflowers through mesquite into early summer, then fall goldenrod and the asters that carry a colony into winter. Our what blooms when rundown walks that calendar month by month. Where hives sit in an area with limited vegetation that needs pollinating, the district requires flowering plants be planted to support them, and whether that reaches your place is a question the walk answers.

The district's appraisers check the properties that carry the valuation. They work from aerial imagery or drive by, and where the use can't be made out from the road the district sends a letter asking for access onto the property. Not answering that can cost the valuation, bring on the rollback penalty, or both. The guidelines call those inspections routine and random, and how often one comes is a question for the office.

We keep records for every inspection to help support your claim of agricultural productivity. Every visit to your hives goes into Outlaw Hideout, the app we run for the landowners we manage, and you can pull a report out of it to take to the county. It won't satisfy the five-of-seven history on its own, though. The land has to meet that test in its own right.

On a smaller Comal County tract, watch the homesite. The land under and around the house is cut from your total acreage to determine your eligible acreage, which determines the number of hives you'll need to run. A homestead claim can take more than you'd expect. Texas Tax Code 11.13 lets an owner claim the house and up to twenty acres, and where a filing names that much, the district may treat that amount as the residential area and tax it at market value. That can pull the ag-eligible acreage toward the five-acre floor or under it. Size the tract with the homesite out first, and settle the carve-out with the district before you count what's left for hives.