When Bobbi Storrs, horticulturist at Pinehurst Country Club, talks about the “Cottonwood girls,” she isn’t referring to the members of a golf team.
The name represents members of a honeybee hive Storrs helped rescue and relocate to the golf course.
Like the Maxwell and Austrian girls, the names are associated with the golf course or the tree from which the hive came. The Austrian girls originally lived in an Austrian pine.
A recent relocation brought in 30,000 honeybees, salvaged and transported from a plains cottonwood tree in south Jefferson County.
After employees of Swingle Lawn, Tree and Landscape Care discovered the hive in a tree while cleaning a ditch area, Tony Hahn, a Swingle landscape consultant, asked Storrs if they could bring the hive to Pinehurst.
Hahn said the removal process involves transporting a 6- to 8-foot length of tree with the bees inside, to its new home.
According to Steve Sarro, grounds director, preventing the destruction of the hive is a boost to the ecosystem.
“It is is an option to taking the whole colony down or killing the bees with insecticides,” he said.
And Hahn said Swingle has the grapple equipment needed to transport the large trees. But that’s only part of the job.
Storrs said the entrance to the hive must be oriented in the same direction as the original location.
She selects sites that are best for the bees.
Standing at the clubhouse entry, she said, “We have 100-plus members and families here, tennis courts, playgrounds, a pool. This is not the best spot for a beehive. The bees like to be out of the way, close to a water source and farther out on the golf course,” she said.
The new hives are in areas on the course that have native grass or stumps. Golfers may occasionally notice the bees, but Storrs said the bees are not aggressive.
With four wild hives at the course and some box hives, Storrs incorporates their presence as an educational tool, especially for youngsters, to let them know the bees are too busy to care about bothering people.
“Wasps are the ones who don’t mind pestering people. Honeybees don’t want anything to do with humans,” Sarro said.
Karen Groves: 303-954-2303, kgroves@denverpost.com
