08 September . 2017
Sweetwater’s honey harvest yields sweet results
Did you know that Sweetwater is home to about 750,000 honeybees, who live in six hives placed amid roughly 700 acres of natural open space in the community? Kept in partnership with Round Rock Honey, the hives are part of Sweetwater’s commitment to develop in harmony with its Hill Country environment.
Sweetwater and Round Rock Honey recently completed the community’s first full-year honey harvest, collecting nearly 20 pounds of sweet wildflower honey.
“This year’s honey is intensely sweet, with flavor notes typical of classic Central Texas wildflower honey,” said Jennifer Harbour, beekeeper for Round Rock Honey. “The alternating rains and dry spells we’ve had this year have been ideal for concentrating the flavors of the nectar.”
Harbour said that this fall is off to a very positive start for Sweetwater’s bees, thanks to heavy nectar flows resulting from the recent rains throughout Central Texas.
“Everything is blooming, and the bees are out foraging. They’ll be putting away honey for the next eight to 10 weeks, putting them in very good shape for the winter,” she said.
Harbour said that honey is collected from bees only once a year, in late summer. After that, all the honey is left in the hive, to provide the bees with enough food and energy to survive the dormant winter period.
For more information on Sweetwater’s honeybee hives, read our first blog after the bees arrived last spring.
To find your own sweet hive at Sweetwater, use our Homefinder to see homes priced from the high $200,000s to over $1 million.