July 6, 2018 • EPE Related News
El Paso Times: Relocation of Bee Hives
El Paso Electric (EPE) is always looking for opportunities to positively contribute to our natural resources and to exercise the ability it has to exhibit good environmental stewardship. One way EPE accomplishes this is by being proactive when it comes to EPE employees and customers occasionally report beehives in transformers, underground vaults, and wooden distribution poles.
“Bees are an important part of the food chain and are important pollinators for all types of plants,” says Jessica Christianson, Manager of El Paso Electric’s Environmental Department.
Bees pollinate more than $15 billion dollars per year of crops in the United States, and bee pollination services are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. To produce one pound of honey, a colony of bees fly about 55,000 miles and visit nearly two million flowers.
“When we get a report of bees in or on El Paso Electric equipment,” says Christianson, “we analyze the situation, and if safety restrictions allow, we invite a local beekeeper to mobilize to the site to remove the bees and relocate them.”
EPE established a partnership with beekeeper Scott Anderson who works to relocate, rather than exterminate, bees whenever practicable. Where possible, he aspirates the queen bee from a colony, and the worker and drone bees quickly follow into a closed container for relocation. Anderson then establishes new hives in boxes using honeycomb from the source location.
EPE has helped relocate a bee colony from a tree containing over 20,000 bees from our far east El Paso location. Customers living in a neighborhood in west El Paso also contacted EPE to notify us of a colony found in our underground vault.
“One reason they move into spaces like this is that it fits the exact requirement that they like,” says Anderson. “They want a dark, enclosed space with a restricted entrance and people naturally panic when they discover that they have a beehive in their own property or on El Paso Electric infrastructure.”
Oftentimes, the community resorts to contacting exterminators who use pesticides or some other chemical to kill them. When EPE receives reports of beehives, however, the Company is able to support the beneficial pollinating function of bees by assisting with the relocation of the colony. This is another demonstration of the Company’s commitment to environmental stewardship in our community.
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