Free · Ages 5–18
Learn online
Short bee lessons, simple quizzes and printable badges. Learn at home or together in class. A parent or teacher holds the account; children do not need their own login.
Choose your child’s age
EduBee · Kids, families & schools
Learn about bees with Mark.
Learn online, visit the apiary — the place Mark keeps his bees — or invite him to your school. No beekeeping experience needed.
2 hours · $25 youth · $75 family
Visit the apiary
Meet Mark where he keeps his bees. Watch the hive, explore flowers and learn together. Protective gear is provided. An accompanying guardian joins free.
Adults $35. Family booking: up to 2 adults and 2 children.
Ask for an apiary visitSchools & groups · Visit fees + travel
Invite Mark to school
Mark brings live bees safely enclosed behind glass, real comb and bee activities to your classroom. Tell him the children’s ages, your group size and where you are.
School prices & visit requestParents and teachers: the free kids’ lessons need no access key. The separate printable lesson pack uses a key from Mark.
Printable lesson packs for parents & teachers →Beekeeper study chapters
The chapters below are a separate study path for older students and beekeepers. Some need a Hive Key from Mark; the kids’ online lessons above are free.
Choose your path
11 chapters on this path
Preface
Core Philosophy — 4H & LISTEN
The tenets every beginner starts with: the 4H Standard (Happy, Healthy, Heavy, Harmony), the LISTEN framework, and the weather check that comes before the hive tool.
Section I
Bee Biology, Life Cycles & Regional Wildflowers
Understand the superorganism before you open it — anatomy, pheromones, caste roles, and the BC bloom calendar that sets your season.
Chapters 5, 6 & 9
Hive KeyReading the Superorganism: Heat, Pheromones and Caste
A colony is one animal wearing forty thousand bodies. Learn its thermostat, its chemical language and its labour ladder before you disturb it, and stop treating a colony like a bag of individual bees.
9 min read · Bee Biology · Pheromones · Fundamentals
Chapter 10
Hive KeyThe Similkameen Bloom Calendar as a Management Clock
Dates lie. Blooms don't. How we time splits, supers and health checks to the valley's floral phenology instead of the calendar page, and how to build your own bloom log for whatever bench your yard sits on.
9 min read · Forage & Bloom · Seasonal Management · Bee Biology
Section II
Equipment, Woodware & Apiary Setup
Langstroth woodware, bee space, the five-frame nuc philosophy, yard siting, and a record system you will actually keep.
Section III
Field Skills, Inspections & Early Season
Smoker craft, calm openings, winter emergence, spring buildup and swarm prevention executed before the bees decide for you.
Chapter 16
Hive KeySmoker Craft, Posture and the First Frame
Calm inspections are a technique, not a temperament. Layering the smoker, approaching off the flight line, and lifting your first frame without losing the colony's trust.
10 min read · Inspections · LISTEN · Field Skills
Chapters 19 & 20
Hive KeySpring Buildup, Box Flipping and Stopping Swarms Early
By the time you see charged swarm cells, the decision was made ten days ago. Reversing deeps, checkerboarding and the artificial swarm split that keeps the crop in your boxes instead of a cottonwood forty feet up.
11 min read · Swarm Prevention · Seasonal Management · Field Skills
Section IV
Peak Flow, Summer Management & Varroa
Measured mite pressure, a true honey surplus after winter stores, winter-bee protection and autumn consolidation.
Chapter 22
Hive KeyVarroa Monitoring in a 4H Apiary
Count mites, track trends and protect winter bees. Mechanical management and survivor selection need honest measurement, not a treatment calendar.
3 min read · Varroa · Disease & IPM · Seasonal Management
Chapters 24 & 25
Hive KeyAutumn: Leave the Bees Heavy for Winter
Harvest a true surplus, leave abundant winter honey, assess health and local queens, and revisit the result in spring.
2 min read · Wintering · 4H · Seasonal Management
Section V
Troubleshooting, Remedies & Field Hacks
Queenless states, robbing frenzies, spotty brood, newspaper combines, bait hives and the Lazy Beekeeper principle.
Chapters 27 & 28
Hive KeyQueenless Hives, Robbing Spikes and the Lazy Beekeeper
Field triage for the problems every beekeeper meets — queenlessness, laying workers, robbing frenzies and spotty brood — plus the newspaper combine, bait hives and the discipline of doing less.
12 min read · Troubleshooting · Queens · Field Skills
Chapter 26
Hive KeyReading the Brood: Disease Diagnostics and BC Reporting
American foulbrood and the rope test, European foulbrood, chalkbrood, sacbrood, nosema and the parasitic mite syndrome that imitates all of them — plus what British Columbia law requires you to report, and to whom.
14 min read · Disease & IPM · AFB · Troubleshooting
Section VI–VII
Closed-Loop Queen Rearing & Genetics
Local queen rearing and evidence-led survivor selection within the 4H Method.
Chapter 29
Master's Apiary keyClosed-Loop Queen Rearing: Day 1 to Mated Queen
A chronological workflow guided by Mark’s 4H standard in Princeton — brood factory, orphan cell builder, graft, finisher, mating nuc, 4H laying audit, and a locally evaluated breeding program.
13 min read · Queen Rearing · Genetics · Queens
Chapter 27
Master's Apiary keyLocal Survivor Selection with 4H & HiveVerity
Read colony evidence across seasons. Select responsibly for health, winter stores, temperament and local adaptation without confusing a score with proof of resistance.
4 min read · Genetics · Queen Rearing · 4H
Section VIII
Harvest Processing & Stewardship
Honey house sanitation, extraction mechanics, hive products, quick-reference field cards and the beekeeper's long road.
Field notes by email
New chapters, drops and workshop dates.
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