If not for the golf carts and golfers, the A.L. Gustin Golf Course at the University of Missouri could be called the A.L. Gustin Nature Center.
The nature aspect of the golf course is an important part of its identity, as are the bees, said golf course Superintendent Isaac Breuer.
There are around 60,000 bees in two hives in an out-of-the-way location at the course — 30,000 in each hive. Saturday is National Honey Bee Day.
A third hive died over the winter, a likely victim of the extreme cold in February, Breuer said. He said he would like to increase the number of hives, which he installed in 2016.
“We check for mites in the fall,” he said.
Outfitted in his protective bee suit, Breuer on Thursday carefully removed a few outer frames from the hive, one at a time. It was cloudy Thursday morning, and Breuer said the bees can become irritable on cloudy days.
He gave instructions for making a quick retreat, should it be required. The bees remained calm as he worked.
“They’re pretty chill right now,” he said.
The frames showed white combs, newly made by the worker bees.
“They’re going to start making honey,” Breuer said. “This is fresh comb that they’re building.”
In some years, he harvests the honey and sells it in the pro shop, but there will be no honey harvest this year, to ensure the bees have enough food over the winter.
How did he learn to be a beekeeper?
“I watched a lot of YouTube videos,” he said. He also solicited advice from golfers who are beekeepers.
There are hazards, he said.
“If they get wet in the winter, they die,” he said.
There’s a mouse guard at the bottom of the hives, to protect from another potential danger.
Barn swallows dart around near ground level on the course. They will be gone, headed south, in the next week or so, Breuer said. The purple martins already have migrated south. There are hollow gourds and purple martin houses on the course.
There also are 26 bluebird houses for the state bird, which has resulted in 3,200 fledgling bluebirds since 1995.
Several areas of the course are planted with wildflowers, which Breuer calls pollinator plots.
“We’ve created a bunch of different ecosystems here,” Breuer said.
One plot contained 20 to 25 different native wildflowers. Bees from the hives collected pollen from some of them.
Breuer pointed out common milkweed and butterfly milkweed, purple cone flowers, compass plants, goldenrod and other wildflowers.
“As one thing starts to die out, another starts to bloom,” he said.
The plots save the golf course $400 an acre in watering and wear and tear on equipment.
Another area he pointed out was a native prairie and a glade.
One of the plots resembled how the area probably looked 400 to 500 years ago, he said.
The golf course in 1997 became the first college golf course to be certified by the Audubon Society as a cooperative sanctuary. The City of Columbia awarded the course with the 2019 Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement Award.
Breuer gave team members Jim Knoesel, Eric Acton and Aaron Weir credit for their help at the course.
The golf course isn’t the only location on campus with honeybees. There’s an apiary — a bee yard — in the Eckles Butterfly Garden near Eckles Hall. Sustain Mizzou Beekeeping, part of a student environmental group, cares for the hives. Sustain Mizzou is becoming a full campus program.