Welcome to ABC Bees! It has been so exciting to be part of our little beekeeping community and watch it grow. Regardless of your beekeeping knowledge or experience, if you have a burning curiosity to learn about bees, you are in the right place.
I want to take some time to share our story and walk you through some of the programs that we have to offer.
About ABC Bees
Eliese Watson founded ABC Bees in 2010, since then it has become the leading beekeeping education company in Canada. ABC Bees started with a simple goal, to share our passion for beekeeping with other burgeoning beekeepers. Everyone starts out as a beginner and that is how our programs and curriculum have been built. The training that we offer is accessible and inclusive. There is never any expectation of expertise, no matter what your beekeeping experience is. You can read our full story here.
Learn with Us
We offer a variety of educational programming here at ABC Bees. Here are just a few we’d like to highlight!
Orientation to Hobby Beekeeping
Orientation to Hobby Beekeeping is a FREE online program to help you build your beekeeping foundations. If you’re brand new to beekeeping, this is the perfect place to start. Through this online course, we answer frequently asked questions about how to get started in your beekeeping journey. What equipment do I need? How do I get bees? Where should I keep my hives? To join the course, click here.
Level One Beekeeping
Level One Beekeeping is and online post-secondary accredited beekeeping course. In this course, Eliese pulls back the curtain on her apiary to show you step by step how to raise and manage honeybees. This comprehensive course includes 50+ instructional videos, weekly Q&A sessions with Eliese, and support from fellow beekeepers across Canada through our ABC Bees Learning Community.
This course is only offered 5 times per year, but you can learn more about the course and to sign up for the waitlist, click here.
Master Academy Webinar Series
Master Academy is a 12 month, webinar series where we meet one Saturday every month via Zoom to learn something new together. This year, we have chosen to explore the theme Wild World of Bees where we dive deeper into the world of bees by interviewing beekeepers, researchers, and community leaders about bees around the world and the impact that bees have on humans and vice versa.
All these webinars are recorded, and it’s never to late to join. Learn more here.
Books
Over the years, we have worked with other passionate beekeepers and native bee enthusiasts, learning more about bees, their unique differences, and connections, and chronicled these experiences through old blog and social media posts. We pulled our resources together to produce high quality educational materials about honeybees, native bees, and gardening for bees.
Our hope is that these books inspire you to make space for all pollinators in your life.
Bees
The Community Hive Collaborative Purchase of Bees is a program that we have been running in partnership with Sweetacre Apiaries since 2009. We bring in ~300 nucleus colonies with Canadian reared and selected genetic stocks from the Shuswap to Alberta.
Nucleus colonies are sold out for 2022, but if you’re looking to purchase Alberta raised queens, you can join our waitlist here.
Stay Connected
We are always looking to provide you with new and unique ways to bring bees into your life, if you want to stay in the loop with all things happening at ABC Bees sign up for our newsletter, Beekeeper’s Minute.
We’re always active on social media. Join us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. We always love seeing you in your element. If you want to share something with us tag us or use the hashtag #ABCBeesCommunity
Welcome to the hive!
