Living near a golf course?

[Sean.]

Evening all,

I'm looking at moving, and a place I've seen has a golf* course very close by. What experience, good and bad have people had?

I know that there are a number of toxic chemicals used to kill pest of on the courses. Are these easily wind spread, how much risk is there to bees?

Thank you.

 

[viridens]

Evening all,

I'm looking at moving, and a place I've seen has a gold course very close by. What experience, good and bad have people had?

I know that there are a number of toxic chemicals used to kill pest of on the courses. Are these easily wind spread, how much risk is there to bees?

Thank you.

That's a nice Freudian slip! Edit: (Damn. You just corrected the typo! )
I think you are wise to be concerned about the chemicals used to keep the greens green, weed, and 'pest' free.
Google Imidacloprid.

 

[Sean.]

Are they problematic for beekeepers? What experiences have people had?

 

[GaryB]

I have no experience with golf courses, but I would be very loath to site hives near them, as previous posters have indicated, they spray like mad to keep that perfect swarth, loved by the golfers, but bereft of anything useful for the bees, i.e wild flowers etc.. Could be a honeybee desert.

 

[REDWOOD]

Never seen the point of golf and it interrupts a good walk. [emoji4]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[kevrhcfag]

Right next to a golf course no issues really.

Yes they spray, greens etc. but as we all know grass is cut extremely often so bees don't go on it. Also have wooded area and plant wild flowers. It shouldn't cause you any issues. If worried go and have a chat with the green keeper.

 

[Stiffy]

Evening all,

I'm looking at moving, and a place I've seen has a golf* course very close by. What experience, good and bad have people had?

I know that there are a number of toxic chemicals used to kill pest of on the courses. Are these easily wind spread, how much risk is there to bees?

Thank you.

I doubt you will get much forage for the bees from a green desert.
S

 

[Tom Bick]

Could be better than you think and will depend on their planting and landscaping away from the greens. Thinking of trees and shrubs.

Personally I wouldn't worry about any possible spraying of the greens.

 

[Into the lions den]

Our main breeding unit is right next to Blairgowrie Golf club. No negative issues whatsoever, and actually at times is a pollen bonanza. There are lots of broom and gorse, some heather in the rough, and a lot of good trees. clover sometimes abounds in the first cut of rough.

Too many alarmists and nervous readers around I fear.

Only issues are the intemperate language that often follows from hearing a ball ricochetting around in the trees.............lol.........but I don't think the bees are easily offended.

 

[Davelin]

My bees are close to the course I play so I often look out for them. On the hazel catkins right now, soon move onto the flowering cherries, hawthorn bramble etc.

The area of closely cut and treated grass is a very small percentage of the total area covered by the course. Most chemical treatments are herbicides, not pesticides and only used on small parts of the course that I've never seen a bee on!

Can't see any problem at all

 

[For want of a better word]

My bees are close to the course I play so I often look out for them. On the hazel catkins right now, soon move onto the flowering cherries, hawthorn bramble etc.

The area of closely cut and treated grass is a very small percentage of the total area covered by the course. Most chemical treatments are herbicides, not pesticides and only used on small parts of the course that I've never seen a bee on!

Can't see any problem at all

Our local 1st class golf course ( Hosts occasional international contests) has endeavored to plant up with wildflower and even an area of pollen and nectar bee friendly plants.

Far from a green desert !

On the other hand the Solar farms that have polluted the once green and pleasant fields are weeded and sprayed to the extent that even the rabbits once very populous in the area have made it onto the Red list!
( despite the promise to plant the verges around the 1000s of hectares of ugly black collectors with bee and pollinator friendly plants.... ooops... we also sprayed the hedgerows)
Yeghes da

 

[Fatbee]

Compared to a field of wheat, golf course is paradise. Whole point of golf is you have areas of rough to test out if you can avoid it. Most that I play on have hedges, scrubby bits and woods.

 

[MartinL]

Evening all,

I'm looking at moving, and a place I've seen has a golf* course very close by. What experience, good and bad have people had?

I know that there are a number of toxic chemicals used to kill pest of on the courses. Are these easily wind spread, how much risk is there to bees?

Thank you.

Is it a municipal course or a club?

Reason being that, If it's run by the local council you can lobby them to reduce the spraying etc.

However, if it's a "Club" it's probably frequented by legal types who do just what they want with little care for the riff-raff your bees included.

Imagine the fall out when the Chief Constable (partnering with the Head JP), gets stung as they're about to finish 1 ahead of the local ambulance chasers!

 

[Davelin]

Is it a municipal course or a club?

Reason being that, If it's run by the local council you can lobby them to reduce the spraying etc.

However, if it's a "Club" it's probably frequented by legal types who do just what they want with little care for the riff-raff your bees included.

Imagine the fall out when the Chief Constable (partnering with the Head JP), gets stung as they're about to finish 1 ahead of the local ambulance chasers!

Utter rubbish.

You are living in a deluded past that never really existed then

 

[For want of a better word]

Utter rubbish.

You are living in a deluded past that never really existed then

I think he was attempting irony... and missed ???


Yeghes da

 

[MartinL]

Utter rubbish.

You are living in a deluded past that never really existed then

Can I presume you play at your "Club"?
or that your municipal course is equally intractable?

I think he was attempting irony... and missed ???


Yeghes da

My point was that, if it's a Club they will most likely be set in their ways, unlikely to change!

 

[Helen]

My back garden is right up against a green and t-off point (is that what it is called?), with a narrow strip of trees and lots of plants in between. The bees in my garden hives always seem to be heading off in that direction. Loads of gorse, broom and other plants around each of the driveways. And then it goes into heathland and woods. No apparent issues from anything nasty.

 

[Stiffy]

One can only speak as found.
My local golf club and the ones I can think of close to where I live are nothing more than grass that is mown to an inch of its life with occasional bits of woodland and sanitised ponds i.e. green deserts.
Thankfully I don't have to site my bees close to any of them and gave an honest view......if yours are different, then great!
S

 

[viridens]

But
A quick Google found a defra pesticide usage report for 2012 which contains the following usage figures for Golf courses:
Herbicides 60,322Kg
Fungicides 17,462Kg
Insecticides 420Kg
PDF here: https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/pusstats/surveys/documents/amenity2012v2.pdf
Maybe these scary reports have been mentioned here before?

 

[george]

I was greenkeeping from 1978 till last May .

I had hives on my course with no ill effects . One apiary was 15yds from a chemical fill and wash down point . Never had any weird losses or sick hives that I could attribute to any chemicals used .

Ignore the grasses for a moment and think Goat Willow, Sycamore , Chestnut , Lime and Hawthorn.
Or perhaps in the longer ecological rough areas , wildflowers , maybe some clover ? I had plenty of that around.
Then later on in the season bramble and then ivy .