Learn From the Farm
A Beekeeping Education Course
Six-module course curriculum developed from eight years of live hive management converting 1,000+ hives to cedar top-bar construction. Launching 2025.
Course Curriculum
Six Modules. One Season.
The course is designed to take a complete beginner from zero knowledge to running their first cedar top-bar hive through one full annual cycle — spring build-up through fall harvest.
Foundation
Honeybee Biology & Colony Structure
The queen, drones, and worker castes — their biology, roles, and communication systems. How a colony makes collective decisions. The role of pheromones in hive health, and what Doug has observed firsthand about Varroa-resistant genetics across his own colonies.
- Colony eusociality and caste development
- Waggle dance and forager communication
- Queen supersedure vs. swarm preparation
- Understanding propolis as immune system
Equipment
Building Your Cedar Top-Bar Hive
Why cedar over pine or fir. Top-bar vs. Langstroth: the key design differences and their practical effects on colony behavior, comb quality, and beekeeper experience. Doug's exact hive blueprints, with sourcing notes for Willamette Valley materials.
- Hive body dimensions and bar spacing
- Wood selection, joinery, and sealing
- Ventilation design and moisture management
- Tools needed — and tools often oversold
Setup
Installing Your First Package
How to source quality package bees in Oregon. Installation timing relative to forage bloom. Introducing a new queen. The first 30 days — what to observe, what not to disturb. An installation timeline built for the Willamette Valley climate.
- Oregon supplier selection criteria
- Package installation step-by-step
- Reading comb building progress
- When to intervene vs. when to wait
Season Management
Spring Build-Up through Summer Flow
Managing the explosive spring population growth without triggering swarms. Identifying and managing comb crowding in a top-bar format. Willamette Valley forage calendar — what's blooming and when. Managing the summer dearth between clover and fall bloom.
- Swarm prevention in top-bar hives
- Splitting colonies for increase
- Regional forage timing and pollen identification
- Supplemental feeding — when and what
Pest & Disease
Varroa Mite Management Without Chemicals
The science of Varroa mite reproduction in natural (non-foundation) comb. Why top-bar hive geometry disrupts the mite cycle. Sugar roll monitoring protocol. Thermal treatment as a chemical-free option. Doug's eight-year mite count data from 1,000+ hives, zero treatments.
- Varroa life cycle in small-cell comb
- Monthly alcohol wash monitoring
- Brood break strategy and timing
- Recognizing and responding to American Foulbrood
Harvest
Extracting, Testing & Bottling Raw Honey
Top-bar harvest mechanics — comb-by-comb selection. Crush-and-strain vs. cold centrifuge. Moisture testing with a refractometer before bottling. Minimum bottling standards. How Queenie-B submits every batch to a third-party lab and what the tests measure.
- Identifying harvest-ready capped comb
- Crush-and-strain equipment setup
- Refractometer use and moisture targets
- DIY lab prep vs. professional testing
Launching 2025
Get Early Access
The full six-module course with video, downloadable plans, and a private student community. Early-access list gets a 20% launch discount and a jar of this season's wildflower honey shipped free.
No purchase required. We'll email once when launch day arrives.