Beekeeping

Learn to keep a healthy honey bee colony from package install to first honey harvest by mastering what bees do and what the beekeeper must do in response. You will compare the Langstroth and top-bar hive, learn the roles of queen, workers, and drones across the seasonal cycle, run a calm inspection with smoker and hive tool, identify the queen and read eggs, larvae, and capped brood, head off swarms before they leave, monitor and treat Varroa mites by alcohol wash, and harvest, extract, and bottle honey without robbing the bees of winter stores. By the end you can install, inspect, feed, treat, harvest, and overwinter a colony with confidence.