GETTING RID OF BEES

Area gardeners will remove them for free

With apologies to “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” too bee or not to bee is never the question for the men and women tending the soil at Avalon Gardens, just across the Santa Cruz River east of Tumac‡cori Mission.

The answer is “to bee” whenever possible.

For folks throughout Santa Cruz Valley troubled by swarming bees this spring, the Avalon gardeners are standing by to remove and relocate the hymenopterous creatures known for their traveling tendencies.

The price for the service is right - it’s done free of charge.

The Avalon removal teams will pick up a swarm to save the bees from extermination and to put them to work pollinating their organic gardens.

Killing bees is a very bad idea, said Alveed Hall, 34, a member of Global Community Communications Alliance, owner and operator of the garden where the bees play an important role in the growing cycle.

“We need bees to grow most crops and fruit trees,” Hall said. “The whole world needs bees. It is important for the entire planet to nurture and preserve every bee that we can. Everyone in the area benefits from it. A lot of people don’t realize that no bees could mean no beef. They would miss their steaks because cattle feed on alfalfa which is pollinated by bees. A lot of our food source would be endangered by a loss of bees.”

Alarmingly, Hall notes, disease has been shrinking bee populations around the world.

But, Arizona’s Africanized feral bees appear to be resistant to the fatal disorder. And, as an April 20 story in the Green Valley News noted, while swarms may be scary and sometimes dangerous to humans, bees on the move are a good sign for the species because it indicates the insects are healthy.

With favorable weather conditions, bees have been unusually active this spring, Hall said. And, when they are swarming, he added, aggressiveness generally is not an issue when the Avalon team responds to a call from Green Valley and elsewhere.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about the Africanized bees,” he said. “People are afraid of them because their aggressiveness has been played up in the media. My experience has been they’re mostly gentle and won’t attack unless they feel threatened.”

Still, the possibility of getting stung while relocating a swarm depends on how careful the removal team is and how the bees react, Hall said. “I get stung quite a bit and it causes some swelling and itchiness but I don’t mind it,” he said. “Swarming bees generally are gentle because, while they are protecting a queen, they are not yet protecting a home.”

Swarms consist of colonizing bees looking for a new home, he said. If you look out in your backyard and see a swarm attached to a tree, what you basically have is a ball of bees surrounding a queen. Drones are trying to cozy up to the queen for breeding purposes and workers are standing guard and sending out scouts to find a new home.

The swarm has separated from an existing hive - probably because it has grown too large. The colonizers may take off with their old queen while the hive grows a new queen, or the new queen may lead the explorers, Hall said. Sometimes an entire hive hits the road looking for new quarters because the colony has grown too large.

“Bees communicate by dance,” he noted. “They have a highly complex system of communications that is largely un-deciphered by humans.”

When Avalon Bees gets a call for removal, response is immediate.

“We try to get to the location as soon as possible,” Hall said, “because the bees could leave at any minute should a new home be found.”

If the swarm is in a tree, the team cuts it loose and puts it into a box for transportation back to the gardens. Should the bees find a home inside walls or other structures that cannot be readily accessed, relocation is probably not in the cards. Then it will be a job for exterminators.

“We are working with exterminators who refer people to us to save the bees,” Hall noted. The availability of their service has been largely spread by word of mouth, he added. Avalon bee relocation services can be reached by calling (520) 603-9932.

The alliance is a faith-based organization founded 14 years ago in Sedona. The alliance set up its organic garden and dairy herds on the old Four Winds Ranch property in Tumac‡cori last year. Hall said some 165 acres are being farmed. He said about 100 people are involved in the farming enterprise.

GCCA’s Web site describes alliance as an “alternative, new thought, progressive Jesusonian community church, religious order, eco-village and organic gardens.

Alliance is a drug- and alcohol-free church venue which includes rehabilitation programs for teens and adults and the Out of the Way Galleria, a Tubac art gallery, according to Kamon Lilly, an elder in the organization.

Hall, who said he studied philosophy and religion at the University of Michigan, has been a part of the GCCA for eight years. He said the Tumac‡cori property is farmed by about 100 people “representing all ages and walks of life and about 15 countries.”

The pride of the organization is the organic garden, designated as Community Supported Agriculture. CSA supporters may purchase shares in the gardening operation in exchange for weekly delivery of a designated amount of produce.

“It’s a program in use all over the country,” Hall said. “People get healthy produce directly from the source with no middlemen. They save gas and oil and they know exactly how their produce has been grown.”

The farm welcomes visitors, who are requested to make arrangements in advance. The organization’s Web address is www.avalongardens.org.

Jerry Schultz is a freelance writer. Contact him at jerryschultz@cox.net.

Details

Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm and Ranch

P.O. Box 4910

Tubac, AZ 85646

Phone: (520) 603-9932

Web: www.avalongardens.org