By:
Shane Reynolds, Outdoor Recreation Director and Outfitter
A long-standing interest of mine has been the benefits of using honey and bee keeping. I have enjoyed honey since I was a child and there are many benefits of having honey in your diet. Honey contains a variety of nutrients, it’s rich in antioxidants and is better for blood sugar levels than regular sugar. Research has shown it to promote heart health, promote burn and wound healing, and help suppress coughing with children.
As golf courses continue to embrace sustainability efforts to better align with nature, many course superintendents have added on-property honeybee hives. Our Director of Agronomy, Stu Rowland, and myself have been discussing introducing bees near the golf course at Cordillera Ranch, and we are targeting the spring to set up some hives. Stu has managed bees at a previous course he directed and I will be an eager-to-learn student in the art of beekeeping.
Not only do the bees help pollinate plants throughout the golf course, they sometimes provide a byproduct of locally produced honey. In the case of The Sanctuary on Sanibel Island, Florida, the source is adjacent to the eighth tee, in an area that was converted from maintained turfgrass to wildflowers in 2010. The Sanctuary has a revenue-generating program from selling the harvested honey to its members. At Cordillera Ranch, we have not decided where our beekeeping operation will go, but we are certain it will help our wildflowers on the course, be a positive addition to the environment on the Ranch, and hopefully provide an opportunity to harvest the honey for gifting or retail sales.
Bees can also serve as an indicator of the course’s overall health, which reinforces the concept that healthy golf environments foster healthy bees and pollinators. According to the American Beekeeping Federation, one-third of all the food Americans eat is directly or indirectly derived from honeybee pollination. Nearly 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants require animal pollination.
Sadly, for bees, they face numerous possible threats including pests and pathogens, reduced habitat, lack of nutrition, and exposure to pesticides. And while wild, native bees can be affected by pesticides, “colony collapse is a phenomenon that is only related to honeybees,” said Dr. Joshua Campbell of the University of Florida’s department of entomology and nematology. Additional factors that can contribute to colony collapse include viruses and other insects. “As long as hives are managed properly, they can offset honeybee losses,” said Campbell.
The swapping of manicured turf acreage for native wildflowers increases native bee habitats on golf courses, said Campbell — a sweet result for courses seeking to better balance their own ecosystem.
Beekeeping can be a very successful endeavor on our golf course. The habitat on the course and surrounding land lends itself to enhancing pollinators and thriving bee colonies. Cordillera Ranch will not only benefit from the environmental stewardship and positive public perception, but we will also reap the rewards of harvesting the delectable honey!
Shane Reynolds is the Outdoor Recreation Director & Outfitter at The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch. He can be reached at outfitter@cordilleraranch.com and 210.616.6051, or at the Cordillera Ranch Outfitter Center at 830.336.4823.
Stu Rowland is the Director of Agronomy at The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch. He can be reached at srowland@cordilleraranch.com and 760.275.9459.
