06/30/2026
Pretty Cool History!!
🐝June 1783 …🐝
James Harrod was the first person in Kentucky to set up a “man-controlled” beehive. Because the new settlers loved sweets, they went to some trouble to find sweet foods. On one of Harrod’s trips home to the Tenmile country of Pennsylvania in the mid 1780s, he harvested a bee gum, which is a portion of a hollow gum tree where honeybees set up hives. He covered the bee gum with burlap and loaded it on to his boat and brought the hive home to Harrodsburg. He set his “hive” up at Boiling Springs Station, aka Harrod’s Station. Word traveled amazingly fast and the settlers from all over the Bluegrass came to buy honey in Harrodsburg. It is said that Isaac Shelby, a Tennessee pioneer, and the future first governor of Kentucky, paid Harrod a cow and a calf for honey.
🐝The photo below is an early illustration of of bee harvesting during pioneer times. It is NOT a drawing of James Harrod.🐝
