FRANKFORT, Ky. — Prior to this summer, many small-scale and beginning beekeepers in Shelby County faced a challenge when it came to extracting the honey from their beehives.

Some beekeepers were using their neighbor’s and friend’s equipment, and according to Wade Reichert, some were attempting to do it in ovens, or otherwise doing the best they could. 

“That is why we decided to get an extractor for the extension office this year,” said Reichert, who is the extension horticulturalist in Shelby County. “It gives the people getting started a chance to use an extractor while they are still deciding whether or not they want to do beekeeping.”

Reichert said the equipment is expensive, but it is cleaner, faster, more efficient and way easier to use. The cost to the extension’s horticulture budget for their new honey extractor was $500.

“It takes selling a lot of jars of honey to make that much money.”

Meanwhile, residents over in Muhlenberg are moving their honey processing equipment to a brand new farmers’ market pavilion the county built this summer. Muhlenberg County extension agent Darrell Simpson said his office is responsible for the honey extracting equipment, which is on loan from Kentucky State University (KSU). 

Simpson said members of the local Paradise Beekeepers club oversee use of the equipment. And according to Simpson, the new honey kitchen will continue to serve the people in McClain and Muhlenberg counties and some even from Christian and Ohio counties at no charge. 

Elsewhere, the Jackson County extension office also keeps honey processing equipment for public use. Just like Muhlenberg County, the Jackson County unit came from a KSU tobacco buyout program grant several years ago.

Jackson County agent Jeff Henderson said the equipment is located at the Jackson County Regional Food Center and Farmers Market in Annville, and it is managed there by the Dark Honey Producers beekeeper club. “Last year, 150 supers were extracted for beekeepers in the region using the unit, and it has already been used several times this year,” Henderson said.

It is difficult to know just how many county agencies in the state have honey extractors, or what they had to pay to get the equipment. However, Tom Webster, apiculture specialist at KSU’s college of agriculture, said at one time there were 16 locations throughout the state that were loaned honey extraction equipment that was paid for by tobacco settlement money. The money is gone now.

“The equipment was established at various sites years ago, and it is unlikely that we will move that equipment any time soon,” he said.

Webster said the program generated a lot of product for beekeepers in the state.

Honey that was extracted using this equipment has been worth more than the grant itself and the dollar value of the crops pollinated because an increase in bee hives has been pretty large too. 

“It has been a pretty successful project,” Webster said.