
This video puts all the parts of the hive we have just learned about together from the bottom up. Also, you will learn what a "queen excluder" is and how to use it.
Master the do's and don'ts of feeding bees. Avoid nectar-storage sugar water, open feeding, robbing, and practices like boiling sugar water, high fructose corn syrup, and store-bought honey.
Learn how to perform a low-stress spring hive inspection, assess brood, nectar, and pollen, rotate frames, monitor for swarming, and locate the queen.
Inspect hives in fall to assess brood, nectar and pollen stores, and queen status; apply mite treatment and prepare bees for winter.
Discover how small hive beetles infest hives, their larval damage to pollen and honey, and practical prevention, trapping, and freezing methods to protect a strong colony.
Bees swarm when half the colony leaves to found a new hive. Coordinate brood nest reduction, queen cups to queen cells, scouts, and site consensus to guide the swarming transition.
New queens hatch in the parent colony after a swarm, emit piping, fight for dominance, mature six days, then mating flights precede eggs starting two to three weeks later.
Prevent swarming by maintaining open space for the queen to lay and for nectar to be stored, not just removing swarm cells; replace queens yearly and use box reversal.
This video shows what a swarm looks like and one method for capturing a swarm into a hive and adding this new colony to your bee yard. You will also witness how the honey bee uses a specialized gland, the Nosanov Gland, to release a pheromone, one of its many communication tools, to draw bees into the hive. A varroa mite can also be spotted hitching a ride on a bee within the swarm.
Learn honey harvesting with a fume board and bee quick to drive bees from the honey super, then carefully select frames with well-capped honey and low moisture, avoiding brood.
Uncap frames and extract honey using knives, rollers, and a six-frame extractor, then strain out wax while preserving pollen and avoiding crystallization for better honey.
Beekeeping is an amazing hobby, but you must learn the foundations of beekeeping in order to be successful. This course is for anyone looking to become a beekeeper and wants a step-by-step guide to take them from buying equipment and bees to extracting their first honey harvest and everything in between. This course is focused on teaching you the foundations of beekeeping in a direct and clear manner without overwhelming you with details that go beyond what you need to know and learn to get started. For those science-loving students who do want to dive deeper into the details of certain topics optional "Extended Learning" opportunities are provided throughout the course.
By the end of this course you will...
Have the knowledge to start your first colony INSTEAD of fearing you will kill your bees.
Have the confidence needed to safely care for your bees INSTEAD of fearing being stung.
Have the guidance needed to become a successful beekeeper INSTEAD of being overwhelmed with how to begin and what to do.
Save and make money with your beekeeping INSTEAD of falling into the many expensive mistakes most NewBees make.
Feel prepared to start beekeeping this spring INSTEAD of feeling overwhelmed and putting it off ANOTHER year.
Have pride in your bees and being able to share the sweet reward from your very own honey harvest INSTEAD of purchasing lesser quality honey from the store.
Protect, enjoy, and benefit from these amazing creatures INSTEAD of wondering what can be done to help the honey bee.
What our students are saying:
"I liked the clear explanations and things being shown in a detailed way."
- Karyn, NewBee University Student, Colorado"
"It was simple and straight forward using language and terms simple to understand and broke beekeeping down to make it really understandable. I am now more excited than ever to get started and feel like I am prepared!"
- Christa, NewBee University Student, Georgia
"Great info! On point without the confusion. Thank you!
- Nicki, NewBee University Student, Australia
"This course was straightforward, easy to follow, while still being extremely helpful by outlining the trickier details of beekeeping. This course consistently gave you pros and cons and in certain cases recommended one of the options, which makes it much easier to move forward. I loved the pacing and how the information was laid out. Thank you!"
- Ellie, NewBee University Student, New York
"I liked that I could do it at my pace, my schedule, and rewind or re-watch lectures."
- Alex, NewBee University Student, Alabama