beatty's miller canyon apiary & orchard

If you are on a bird watching trip this is a must. Lots of humming birds and for the past few years Spotted Owls. We have stayed here a couple of times and just visited a few more. We have talked with Mr. and Mrs. Beatty and their adult son and they are all very helpful, and yes Tom, Sr. is a character. But we never had any trouble. In my opinion, if you're not a serious bird watcher you're a "looky-loo" and Tom, Sr. really doesn't want your business. The better hummingbird viewing area is a short walk up the hill. Owls are a little farther, but still not a strenuous climb.

mr and mrs beatty were very friendly and eager to share their knowledge of the local birds, great hummingbird feeders with two areas of viewing to choose from, bleacher type of seating at the far viewing site most comfortble in se arizona that we visited, $5 charge as with other feeder sites, a very large variety of hummingbirds

Tom, the old man who owns the place, pops in and out like Freddy Kruger to drop a barrage of f-bombs occasionally. This sort of behavior is seen as normal by the other members of his family and no one commented on it. I know this is rural Arizona, but it's a business and this sort of behavior isn't professional, particularly in a place where people bring their kids with them on vacation.I went there for peace and quiet and some nice birdwatching, but between the mentally unstable owner and his incessantly barking dogs, there was very little peace and quiet to be had. Go somewhere else. I am never going back.

I concur the place is an absolute dump. The owner is a surly, boorish cretin of a man. He is inhospitable and downright unfriendly. Do not bring children since his language is more than R rated. He was yelling obscenities on the property. I do not pay for a service and expect to hear the F word repeatably tossed around. There are several other places in the area to view hummingbirds that present a nice accommodating atmosphere.

The property is a dump. But the worst overall experience is that the owners never should be in the business to begin with. They are rude, snide and offer no valuable service. They don't border on crazy- they are crazy. You will regret having done business with people that should never do business with people. Better served with nice accommodations in the town of Sierra Vista and stay away from these people.

WOW! This visit was a complete surprise and was hard to get to. You have to keep going up this really bumpy, curving dirt road and we were in a rent a car going "where is it". We finally parked at a little park parking lot but Beatty's is actually further up the hill. So we walked up and I don't even remember if there was a sign, I think there must have been, but Tom came out of one of the cabins and walked down to greet us. We were too early in the season to see hummingbirds and by the way this place is near to the record or is the record, for MOST SPECIES of hummingbirds recorded in one spot. In any event, Tom Sr told us about a recent spotting of a spotted owl (how appropriate!) and drew out a map let us use his walking sticks to hike up and view the feathered fellow. Well we never saw the owl but we got in a really wonderful hike and Tom was so interesting to talk to and my friend was really impressed about his knowledge and his stories. If other reviewers gave bad reviews, good, maybe that will keep out the riff raff. Don't bring your kids or your cigarettes, just come as genuinely interested birders and you'll get along just fine, and it will be a real experience. There are cabins to rent as well which would be great!

There were quite a few hummingbirds, and we had only seen a very small number at other locations we visited during our trip April 18-21. When we were there at the end of the day there were Magnificent, Broad-tailed, Broad-billed, and Black-chinned, along with a Bridled Titmouse, Empid and a few other birds. The little bleacher set up was OK for viewing, but was noisy. Every time someone stood up or sat down it made a lot of noise and spooked the birds. Ran into someone from the ranch who was very helpful.

As a parent of two young kids we would never ever return to Beatty's Guest Ranch, based on the horrendous experience we had today, on our annual vacation.Our kids are aged six and thirteen and were sat on the Beatty's fantastic hummingbird viewing area when they were rushed out-of-the-blue by the owner's totally out of control hound dogs, who frankly terrified them. The dogs jumped all up them, chased them around the terrace, all with Tom Beatty Jr looking on motionless. He seemed to be getting some kind of sick pleasure out of seeing my frightened kids cowering and made no attempt to control his animals or to help, until I pleaded with him to intervene. He never apologised for the extremely frightening experience. My youngest was literally screaming in terror. Bear in mind that some of these dogs were full-grown hunting hounds, which had spent a good half an hour howling in the woods before being 'invited over' by the owner to terrorise our party, so we were already concerned with their presence nearby.We would like to remind the Beatty's that guests pay for admission onto their property and hence should be treated with some basic level of dignity and respect and not like common trespassers. If the owner and his son don't want guests around then they should stop offering the paid hummingbird viewings. We paid $40 over the two days we visited, $20 of which was for one undisturbed hour prior to the dog invasion and intimidation incident. Frankly we felt like this whole 'dog show' was arranged to get rid of us, as there was no other explanation for the owner's son coming over to the bleacher area. He wasn't coming over for a chat that's for sure. We would like to point out that we had never been unpleasant to the owners and had abided by every single one of the site rules, of which there were many.It's worth saying that the owners appear to have few people skills and struggle with the whole friendliness thing. On the 'dog show' day Tom Jr said nothing to us at the Bleacher and had no reason to disrupt what was, until then, a peaceful and enjoyable hummingbird viewing.This whole visit to Beatty's Guest Ranch soured our entire holiday and will leave a lasting impression for all the wrong reasons. Our advice is to avoid visiting Beatty's Guest Ranch altogether as the dogs are too unpredictable, as well as the owners. We visited another place just south on I92 (Ash Canyon B&B) who had a similar viewing setup, but with a much more welcoming owner. Certainly avoid a visit to Beatty's if you have kids or you have ANY inclination towards being scared of large out of control dogs. Be warned!On the plus side Beatty's provided excellent hummingbird viewing with great sightings of Broad Billed, Broad Tailed, Rufous, Black Chinned and Magnificent Hummingbirds. However, the hillbilly owners and their hounds were something else.

This used to be a pretty orchard in the forest. After the Monument fire the orchard and most of the forest is gone. What's left is a foul-mouthed old coot who likes to scream obscenities at the top of his lungs, an incessantly yowling dog, and poultry making a racket at all hours. If you're looking for peace and quite in a natural setting steer clear of this place.

We stopped and even though the season is over, Tom Beatty took us on a tour and showed us one of the cabins that you can rent. He still had hummingbirds and the apple trees were full of apples. The chickens were running around and we bought some of his apples and a dozen fresh eggs.

This is by far the best place to go in the Greater Tucson area to see hummingbirds. Go early in the day when the hummers are most active. Mr. Beatty has some rules he would like you to follow, basically common courtesies, but people sometimes need reminders. We found the whole experience the highlight of our trip to Tucson. Keep in mind that it is quite a drive to Miller Canyon from Tucson. Take a birdbook to help you identify all the different hummingbirds you will see.

We spent 3 days in one of the cabins here and just loved it! Listening to tom jn talk about his beloved dogs and Tom snr knowledge and love of nature and especially the hummingbirds was very specail

This is an interesting place, very well-known to birders. When we pulled up, we were promptly greeted by Mr. Tom Beatty, who opened with "If you don't smoke on my property, I've got no problem with you." He's a character, but he's extremely knowledgeable about wildlife and has built a pretty amazing place. It's well worth the $5 to go up to the hummingbird viewing platform (with many feeders and comfortable seats) and other areas on his property to see birds and other flora and fauna. The property backs up to the national forest, so you can continue on the trail as far as you want. Mr. Beatty may give you lots of confusing directions on where to go to see various species (we finally found a spotted owl, but gave up on finding a pair of pygmy owls). If I was staying here (they have cottages you can rent), I think I would draw him a map so he can show people where to go! But it's kind of like a scavenger hunt... and it's likely that there will be other people there, and together you can remember all the info he packs into your brain. He also kindly loaned us hiking poles for climbing up the canyon, which was a steep and rocky trail. He told me "I look at people for a minute and decide if they need sticks." I couldn't deny that we probably looked like we needed them, and we were grateful for them. NOTES: there's a flock of peafowl, and they are really noisy. There's a little gift shop with an honor system payment system for cold drinks and little souvenirs, as well as the honey the Beattys produce. The area (and the Beattys' apple production) is still recovering from a fire a few years ago. There's also been some damage done to the creek by the city of Tombstone, which gets its water from Miller Canyon. Miller is probably not at 100% right now in terms of birding, but I can't imagine that anyone who wants to see some birds wouldn't make this place a priority! Also, check out there awesome web site... it will give you the flavor of the place and of Mr. Beatty.

Glad we got here when a real birder was touring some folks as he could call out the various hummers we saw as well as explain some aspects of their recent decline in numbers.

my husband and i have been visiting the beattys for about 15 years. it is a beautiful place, even now after the devastation. they have worked so hard to restore everything that was lost or damaged in the fires and floods last year. i highly recommend cabin A on the hill. the hiking is wonderful up miller canyon. if you are a birder you will be rewarded. if you like to sit and relax that is great too. they also have seven dogs which you can interact with or not. but they are a lot of fun we always bring them biscuits. the oldest dog Buffy we remember as a puppy. they also have chickens and guinea hens. there is nothing like sitting outside cabinA in the evening and watching the stars from high up on the hill.