Shaker Village Bees

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill has 40-60 beehives on the property, in 12,000 acres of restored native prairie with wildflowers. Merin Roseman, sustainability programs specialist, said about 5-10 of those acres are used for educational programs. The rest are used to produce the honey sold at the village and used in the restaurants.

A healthy hive has about 60,000 to 80,000 honeybees in the summer. “A lot of people think honeybees either migrate or all die off during the winter. But really, they are the only insects in Kentucky that stay warm all through the winter.”

Shaker Village offers an introductory beekeeping course in the spring, with an intermediate level course available later in the season. “There’s been a lot of resurgence in backyard beekeeping,” she said.

It takes many bees to make a significant quantity of honey. A single bee, Franklin said, produces one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

This segment is part of Kentucky Life episode #2209, which originally aired on February 11, 2017. Watch the full episode.