The Road to Flowing Springs

Gene and I continued our epic road trip to distribute 4,200 bees at the Flowing Springs/Payson, AZ Site3.

Flowing Springs is located about 5 miles north of Payson which is itself 80 miles northeast of Phoenix. Flowing Springs is located on the East Verde River where it joins with Webber Creek. The perennial, spring-fed Webber Creek joins with the intermittent East Verde River at the "fourth crossing" within Flowing Springs. The combined flow rate is measured 5 miles downstream at Crackerjack, although it only registers up to 40 cubic feet per second (cfs).

To get to Flowing Springs locations, you cross the river three times; the first is (normally) a "dry" crossing:

Then the second "wet" crossing; fording the river:

And the third wet crossing:

We plan to put the bees in two locations within Flowing Springs: a fenced Master Garden up a hill from the river and a residential lot located on the river.

Joanne's Master Garden is fenced because the area is populated with elk, deer and free range cattle. These animals will eat any and all vegetation, short of pine and spruce trees. One morning Joanne woke up to find a female elk in her garden. She shooed it out. The game camera on the front gate caught the elk in the act of breaking and entering.

Female Elk Jumps the Gate to Enter Joanne's Master Garden in Flowing Springs

Joanne has since improved the fencing, no more intrusions since then.

The two sites are located on the river (Site3b) and up a hill from the river (Site3a).

Site3 in Flowing Springs; Site3a Top, Center; Site3b Lower Left

Site3a detail:

Site3a Flowing Springs

Site3b detail:

Site3b Flowing Springs

First a tour of Site3a, the Master Garden:

While we were there, Gene demonstrated 'gentle bees' to Joanne:

And we met the "Payson Pumpkin People":

Payson Pumpkin People: Ralfe Taylor, Steve Matlock, Morris Williams

They plan to grow Arizona's largest pumpkin in the Master Garden and win the competition scheduled for September in Carefree. They competed last year using this Master Garden location and are hard at work this year:

Site3a: Getting the Pumpkin Patch Ready

These are serious competitors who are commissioning soil samples and more. We will be following their progress as we monitor our bees.

We placed 9 habitats at the Master Garden: two 8X12's at the master box release point and seven 8x6 'blue boxes' around the periphery:

Site3a: Map of Habitat and Master Box Release Point

Some photos of the habitats:

Site3a: Master Box with two 8x12 habitats

Site3a 'Blue Box" 8x6 Habitat In a Tree

Site3a 'Blue Box" 8x6 Habitat On a Post

Site3a 'Blue Box" 8x6 Habitat On an Elk

Site3a: Bonus, Existing Tubes Already Located in the Pumpkin Patch

Before we go to our second site, we'll show you the fourth crossing where the East Verde River and Webber Creek meet within Flowing Springs.

Say, that would be a good place for a wedding:

Congraulations, Jennifer and Kody Ngo; 13 August 2016

Now, we for a tour of our next site, the riverfront residential lot.

Here's the map of Site3b with the four habitat locations, all 8x6 'blue boxes':

Site3b Map of Habitat Locations

Site3b Staging the Habitats

Site3b2 8x6 Blue Box

Site3b3 8x6 Blue Box

Site3b4 8x6 Blue Box

We talked about the elk, deer and free range cattle earlier. The cattle have prior legal rights to roam wherever they like. You can build a fence to exclude them from private property but if not fenced, you cannot interfere with them. You think cleaning up after your dog is a chore?

Site3b-Free Range Cattle Poop

In the next post we attempt to place the bees; but face a crisis:

Beextinction - are all our bees dead?