Dariece Rau (pronounced roo) has been a nature lover her entire life. She, her mom, Justine, and family enjoy watching all the wildlife that visit Dariece and her husband Charlie’s  24-acre property. Some of the many animals that they have seen include various species of birds from hummingbirds to osprey, bald eagles, and wood storks; coyotes, bobcats, hogs, river otters, beaver, various snakes, nutria, armadillos, longhorns, horses, a llama, a goat, and an iguana. However, the bees have captured Dariece’s time, interest and energy. Dariece started beekeeping in 2016. It has been a learning adventure that continues to this day. It has even become a small business that now goes by “BEEin' Sweet Honey and Bees.”

In this regard, Dariece always gets two questions: “Have you ever been stung?,” and “Do you wear a bee suit?” Dariece says that the answer to both is a definite yes. "I get stings occasionally which are not enjoyable, but it is expected when you work with bees. I always wear a bee suit, as you just never know the temperament of the bees that you may find when you open a hive. After all, protective gear like bee suits and gloves were invented for a reason."

Dariece is a small-scale beekeeper: someone managing 50 colonies or less. She started with six hives, had as many as 25, and now has about 18, with a goal of reducing to 14. 

One thing that differentiates Dariece from many area beekeepers is that she is a treatment-free beekeeper. For the past six years, she has not used any chemicals in her hives to kill or repel various pests. Instead, she chooses honey bee queens based on their genetics. The queens that are in most of her hives are either varroa sensitive hygienic (VSH) PolLine queens or BeeWeaver queens. 

The biggest threat to honey bees, outside of pesticides, is viruses transmitted to the bees by varroa mites. Varroa mites for bees are similar to ticks for humans. This parasite, if not kept under control, can lead to the death of an entire colony.  The VSH trait imparts a natural defense mechanism wherein the honey bee workers recognize capped brood cells containing both developing bee pupae and reproducing varroa mites. The workers will then uncap those specific cells and remove both pupae and mites from the hive. This helps break the life cycle of the varroa mite. 

Dariece does “small-batch honey extraction” most years instead of extracting everything at once. This allows her to bottle honey with different taste and color profiles so that the distinctive flavors of various nectar sources in our area can be tasted. Dariece says, "Small-batch extracting is more work, but I truly enjoy letting folks experience the distinctly different flavors and colors of honey from our area. You can’t get any more local than my Lake Windcrest honey unless it is from your own backyard, which it kind of is since my bees may well be foraging on your plants to get the nectar that makes BEEin’ Sweet’s honey." Honey bees will travel up to five miles if needed to find nectar, pollen, and/or water.

The largest nectar source in our area is the Chinese tallow tree. “It is a fast-growing invasive species, but it makes delicious honey,” Dariece says. She also plants clover and wildflower plots around their property. Clover honey is great to use to make creamed honey which is smooth and spreads like butter. “Last year, we had a lot of nectar from boneset, a plant native to our area,” Dariece shares. “Clover honey is very light in color, versus boneset, which is very dark.” Additionally, honey naturally crystallizes and it does not mean that the honey has gone bad. It just needs to be heated some to get it back to its liquid state. 

After selling just honey for her first six beekeeper years, Dariece now sells a limited number of hives of bees each year (which includes mentoring for the first year for those within a 30-minute drive), to offering on-site coaching, hive management services, agricultural 1-d-1 leases, and presentations. If you get a swarm of bees on your property or have a honey bee colony move into a structure, reach out to Dariece. She can help you directly or guide you to someone else who can help. 

Dariece encourages other beekeepers in Lake Windcrest to attend monthly beekeeper meetings in “Old Magnolia” to continue to learn about honey bees and enjoy fellowship with other beekeepers in the area. It’s a great group of all experience levels. “Come learn with us.” 

If you want some truly local honey,  you can stop by Magnolia Auto Specialists (one of our Lake Windcrest Stroll advertisers) where 1 lb bottles of Dariece’s honey are available. Or if you need a different size of honey, want to start your own hive, find out more about the Magnolia beekeeping meetings, or just have a few buzzing questions, Dariece is always happy to help!