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Program Design

Primer for the Program Design

This page is designed to give you a sense of how the program is structured.

What you will find below is an overview of the Program Phases and what the objective is for the phases. Below that we will show you how the lessons relate to the phases.

Jump to the Program Phase Listings

Jump to the Lesson Listings

Program Phases

Introduction

The Program is designed in Logical Phases
The premise of the phased design is to provide logical groupings of the key milestones that represent becoming a competent beekeeper.

Two Year Program
The program is designed to operate over the span of two beekeeping seasons.  The first year focus is on getting prepared, getting started, building up to two full colonies, and then sustaining the colonies for overwintering.
 
Year two is designed to lead the beekeeper through managing a full-sized colony through spring, through swarming, and into honey harvesting. 

Program Phase List
Phase 1 – Starting Out (I want bees to Bees in the box)
Phase 2 – Getting Up and Running (Bees in the box to fully operational hive)
Phase 3 – Surviving Winter (Fully Operational Hive to Winter Preparation)
Phase 4 – Winter to Spring (Winter Preparation to Spring Forage and Foundational Beekeeping Topics)
Phase 5 – Spring to Summer, Year 2 (Swarming, Splits, Honey Production)
Phase 6 – Honey Extraction
Phase 7 – Summer to Fall, Year 2 (Managing Full Sized Colonies to winter)
Phase 8 – Winter, Year 2

Program Phases Elaborated

In this section, you will find the high-level objectives for each of the phases.

– Getting Familiar with the hive and Beekeeping Equipment
– Hive Fabrication and Equipment Assembly
– Good Beekeeping
– Apiary Design
– Installing Bees

– Post Install Care
– Colony Growth
– Varroa Mites

– The Calendar of Summer
– Mentor Visits
– Looking ahead to Fall Preparations

– Caring for hives in winter.
– Foundational Beekeeping topics to make you a well rounded beekeeper
– Bee Anatomy
– Introduction to hive maladies

–  Monitoring colonies for survival to the availability of forage
–  Hive Autopsies of Dead outs, Putting demised hives back into service
–  Swarm Prevention
–  The basics of Increases and Splits
–  Techniques for expansion for honey production (adding honey supers)
– Collecting Swarms
– Nucleus Hives

–  Removing honey from the hive
–  Extraction process, tools, and techniques
–  Bottling honey

–  Monitoring Queen health
–  Winter techniques for established colonies

–  Overseeing hives in winter, final topics of beekeeping instruction

Lesson List

A Summary Listing of the Lessons in the program

YEAR 1

– Program Introduction

–  Lesson 1 | Langstroth Equipment
–  Lesson 2 | Langstroth Equipment Pieces
–  Lesson 3 | Purchasing Hive Equipment
–  Lesson 4 | Other Beekeeping Equipment
–  Lesson 5 | Protective Equipment
–  Lesson 6 | Building Frames
–  Lesson 7 | Hive Fabrication
–  Lesson 8 | Hive Painting

–  Lesson 9 | Sourcing Bees
–  Lesson 10 | Queen Rejection Risk – Packages
–  Lesson 11 | Beekeeping is Local
–  Lesson 12 | Choosing a Style
–  Lesson 13 | Adherence to Regulations
–  Lesson 14 | Be a good neighbor
–  Lesson 15 | Apiary Design
–  Lesson 16 | Hive Placement
:: Optional Lesson – Bear Fencing

–  Lesson 17 | Installing Bees- Package
:: Supplemental Guide for Package Installation
–  Lesson 18 | Installing Bees- Nucleus
:: Supplemental Guide for Nuc Installation
–  Lesson 19 | Post Install – First Week
–  Lesson 20 | Inspections
–  Lesson 21 | Using A Hive Tool
–  Lesson 22 | Things you will See
– Lesson 23 | Feeding New Colonies

–  Lesson 24 | Equipment Prep for future stages
–  Lesson 25 | Record Keeping
–  Lesson 26 | From one box to Two
–  Lesson 27 | Varroa Mites
– Lesson 28 | Small Hive Beetles
–  Lesson 29 | Mite Monitoring
–  Lesson 30 | Mite Treatment Options

–  Lesson 31 | The Calendar of Summer
–  Lesson 32 | From two boxes to two three or more
– Lesson 33 | Summer and Fall Feeding
–  Lesson 34 | Preparing for the Fall Nectar Flow
– Lesson 35 | Summer Queen Assessment
– Lesson 36 | Robbing

–  Lesson 37 | Mite Infestations in the Fall
–  Lesson 38 | Propping up Weak Hives
– Lesson 39 | Collapsing to two boxes

– No Sessions | Summer Break

– Lesson 40 | Equipment (comb) Storage
– Lesson 41 | Dealing with Waxmoth

– Lesson 42 | Executing Winterization

– Lesson 43 | Looking after Hives in Winter

– NO Sessions | Winter Break

YEAR 2

– Lesson 44 | Bee Anatomy – Drones
– Lesson 45 | Bee Anatomy – Queens
– Lesson 46 | Bee Anatomy – Workers
– Lesson 47 | CSI Deadouts – Performing Hive Autopsies
– Lesson 48 | CSI Back in service
– Lesson 49 | Replacing Poorly Formed Comb

– Lesson 50 | Intro to Hive Maladies
–  Lesson 51 | Introduction to Splitting Hives
–  Lesson 52 | How to do a Traditional Split
–  Lesson 53 | How to do a Walkaway Split
– Lesson 54 | Basics of a Demaree Split

–  Lesson 55 | Swarm Triggers
–  Lesson 56 | Swarm Indicators
– Lesson 57 | Swarm Prevention
–  Lesson 58 | Hiving Swarms

–  Lesson 59 | Utility of Nucleus Hives

–  Lesson 60 | Introduction to Honey Harvesting
–  Lesson 61 | Clearing Honey Boxes
– Lesson 62 | Uncapping Tools and Process
–  Lesson 62 | Using Extraction Equipment

–  Lesson 31 | The Calendar of Summer
–  Lesson 32 | From two boxes to two three or more
– Lesson 33 | Summer and Fall Feeding
–  Lesson 34 | Preparing for the Fall Nectar Flow
– Lesson 35 | Summer Queen Assessment
– Lesson 36 | Robbing

–  Lesson 69 | Bottling Honey

–  Lesson 66  |  Replacing Queens
–  Lesson 67  |  Frame Management (The Frame Game)

–  Lesson 68  |  Colony Thermodynamics
–  Lesson 69  |  Hive Monitoring

–  Lesson 70  |  Entering a Honey Show
–  Lesson 71  |  Rendering Wax

–  Lesson 72  |  Products of the Hive Overview

– Lesson 73 | Caring for your Bee Suit
– Lesson 74  |  Beekeeping Conferences
–  Lesson 75  |  What have you learned (Graduation)