The Focus

This course will help you understand how to grow your apiary without weakening your colonies, how to recognize when a hive is ready to divide, how to work with natural queen events, and how to make choices that support local adaptation over time.

Rather than simply adding more hives, Level 2 teaches you how to build a resilient apiary.

Who This Course Is For

• You have completed Level 1 or already have some hands-on beekeeping experience.
• You want to grow from one or two hives into a more resilient apiary.
• You are interested in splits, colony divides, and natural queen rearing.
• You want to better understand queen vitality, brood health, and colony strength.
• You are ready to make more confident decisions in the field.
• You want to work with the bees' natural rhythms instead of forcing expansion.

Hive Behavior

Advanced hive behavior and strategic decision-making.

Apiary Growth

Expanding colonies with care and working with foundationless comb.

Queen Rearing

Splits, colony divides, natural queen rearing, and queen vitality.

Local Adaptation

Breeding for resistance and tracking genetics in your own apiary.

Brood Health

Advanced Varroa strategy, brood breaks, and colony vitality.

Hive Products

Pollination, biodynamic principles, honey, organic history, and value-added products.

The Heart of Level 2

How do we grow an apiary in a way that strengthens the bees?

A growing apiary becomes a living network. Each colony influences the next. Each queen contributes to the future of the yard. Each split, brood break, and management choice shapes the health of the bees over time.

Observation, timing, and care become the craft.

Meet Joy & Eric

Joy and Eric McEwen are the founders of Diggin' Livin' Farm & Apiary and longtime natural beekeepers, educators, and advocates for a more bee-centered way of tending hives.

Together, they bring decades of hands-on experience with honey bees, medicinal hive products, natural nest beekeeping, queen rearing, and resilient apiary stewardship. Their teaching is rooted in close observation, seasonal relationship, and a deep respect for the intelligence of the colony.

• 5 pre-recorded modules (released week-by-week so you can learn at a steady pace)
• Weekly live calls with Joy & Eric for hands-on learning, Q&A, and deeper teaching.  The calls are on Thursdays at 4pm PST to 5:30pm PST.  Every call will be recorded so if you miss the call you can watch the recording. Generally, the calls start with a opening statement, a short lecture, and then about half the call is left for Q & A, and getting to know to each other. 
• Access to a community forum to connect with peers, share wins + challenges, and keep learning beyond the cohort
• Level 2 Natural Beekeeping Course Certificates upon completion