BRING YOUR BEEKEEPING DREAMS TO LIFE

In the Level One Beekeeping Online Workshop, Forbes Magazine featured beekeeper Eliese Watson pulls back the curtain of her small honey beekeeping operation to show you step by step how to raise and manage honey bees to produce honey in your backyard. In the workshop, covering an entire beekeeping season, Eliese shares key strategies, systems, and time-tested techniques used to build ABC Bees thriving, profitable beekeeping business with less than 50 colonies.

This is a Post-Secondary Accredited Course

Join bee lovers from across North America who have created productive backyard beehives, launched successful beekeeping businesses, and discovered the joy of producing and sharing their own honey and wax products through the ABC Bees Level One Online Certificate.

This comprehensive workshop includes 50+ instructional videos, weekly Q&A sessions with Eliese, and support from fellow beekeepers across Canada via the ABC Bees Learning Community, and so much more. Enrollment in the ABC Bees Level One Online Certificate is offered just a few times per year.

COURSE OUTLINE

TEN COMPREHENSIVE MODULES DIG DEEP INTO SMALL-SCALE APIARY PRODUCTION

MODULE 1

Biology

Discover the intricacies of the honey bee lifecycle, evolution, and the varied roles of each caste. With a focus on workers, drones, and queens, we will pull back the veil to view not just how bees work the way they do, but why.

MODULE 2

Beginning Beekeeping

Explore some of the tools that all beekeepers need and we start to learn about where you can purchase colonies and how to assess their value. You will learn about bee packages, transporting nucleus colonies, single colonies and how to manage swarms.

MODULE 3

POLLEN AND NECTAR

Explore the nectar flows in your specific geographic location and you will learn about the common nectar plants. You will have an opportunity to build your learning portfolio by conducting your own research and interacting with fellow students on the online community.

MODULE 4

Feeding

Construct a supplementary feeding plan that will prevent the starvation of the colony and best support bee health and productivity. Learn about wintering bees, pollen supplementation and substitutes, as well as feeding schedules.

MODULE 5

Hive Placement

 Learn about all the considerations when you are determining the best place to place your hives to ensure the health of your colony. You will also learn about honey bee orientation and more about urban beekeeping.

MODULE 6

Spring Management

Learn how to determine when Spring has arrived for your bees, and what management practices are essential to get off to a strong start.

MODULE 7

Summer Management

Create summer management goals and expectations including splitting, supering, or combining colonies. Learn to perform basic hive inspections, identify specific causes for concern, and apply integrated pest management strategies throughout the beekeeping season.

MODULE 8

Fall Management

Explore the harvesting of honey and how to prepare the colony for winter survival. Seasonal management plan for Fall including simplified honey extraction strategies including foundation and foundationless hive management.

MODULE 9

Winter Management

Learn the role of thermodynamics in winterization strategies, the importance of honey and pollen throughout the winter, as well as winter wrap options, locations and flight paths of bees.

MODULE 10

Honey Bee Health

Complete a management schedule outlining Integrated Pest Management strategies and techniques that will support bee health and productivity throughout the seasons.  Learn to explain when pathogens may be present in a colony identifying solutions to treat, restrict, or remove them.

CAPSTONE PROJECT

Final Apiary Plan

You will complete your final design an operational beehive and apiary. It will include: Background research, rationale for design, location, size, hive health, a seasonal work plan: spring, summer, fall, winter, as well as risk factors & mitigation.

SMALL SPACE
BIG IMPACT
NO FARM REQUIRED

Judi Parrot

“When I enrolled in ABC Bees Level One Beekeeping course, I wanted to learn enough to feel more confident and be more capable looking after my bees. The course was great but what I value even more is the ongoing mentoring and support that Eliese willingly provided. She has an incredible understanding of everything “bees” and remarkable patience for people who are new beekeepers. Eliese and the community of beekeepers that she introduced me to have made my beekeeping easier, more successful and a whole lot of fun.”

Michael Bush

“Eliese is smart, knowledgeable, personable and just plain nice. Her beekeeping knowledge is far beyond most and she knows how to communicate it. But beyond that she has a charisma that I don’t know how to put into words. People just find it a joy to be around her.”

Kirk Anderson

“I met Eliese many years ago at a Organic Beekeepers Convention in Oracle Arizona. I had never seen so much love and enthusiasm for before or since. I was also lucky enough to come to Calgary and help her when she first started ABC Bees. Along with her enthusiasm is her understanding of bees and her desire to help others. Having kept bees since 1969, I not come across such talent and ability to see bees and help others. Aren’t all of us bee lovers lucky.

Mary Lynn Hogg

“When I enrolled in ABC Bees Level One Beekeeping course, I wanted to learn enough to feel more confident and be more capable looking after my bees. The course was great but what I value even more is the ongoing mentoring and support that Eliese willingly provided. She has an incredible understanding of everything “bees” and remarkable patience for people who are new beekeepers. Eliese and the community of beekeepers that she introduced me to have made my beekeeping easier, more successful and a whole lot of fun.”

CERTIFICATE TIMELINE

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