Spring session · Asheville, North Carolina
Sweet Hollow's bee school runs with the spring nectar flow — from the first redbud to the sourwood. Classes follow what the hives are doing that week, so you learn the season as it happens.
Beekeeping 101 · Hive inspections · Honey extraction · Nuc & package bees · Pollinator consulting
The bloom calendar
Spring in the Blue Ridge arrives in layers. Maple and redbud first, then tulip poplar, then the sourwood and clover that make the honey. Our courses are timed to that sequence, so what you learn in the morning you can look for in an open hive the same week.
Take the three stages in order, or start wherever the season finds you — each one stands on its own.
See the three courses ↓Early bloom
Maple and redbud open and the first flights of the year begin.
Mid bloom
Tulip poplar and locust; the colony builds fast and needs room.
Late bloom
Sourwood and clover; surplus honey and the harvest.
Courses
Three stages of the spring nectar flow, three hands-on courses built around them. All of them are taught at the Sweet Hollow apiary outside Asheville, and none of them assume you have kept bees before.
Early bloom · maple & redbud
A ground-up start for your first season: how a colony actually works, what equipment you need and what you can borrow, and how to read a hive instead of guessing. Built for people who have never opened a lid.
Mid bloom · tulip poplar & locust
Stand beside an open colony and learn what you are looking at — brood patterns, queen signs, space and stores. You leave able to walk your own hives with a plan rather than a hope.
Late bloom · sourwood & clover
Uncapping, spinning, straining and cleanup — the whole harvest, frame to jar. Come in clothes you do not mind and expect to be sticky before the morning is out.
Bee sales
Sweet Hollow raises nucleus colonies and brings in packages for spring. Both go out as the bloom sequence starts to move — if you are starting a hive this season, speak up while the first petals are still closed.
A mated queen on drawn frames with a started colony, ready to move straight into your hive body.
A queen and a shook swarm, for beekeepers building a colony up from scratch.
Garden-side
Not every garden needs a hive. Sometimes it just needs a better plan.
We walk a property the way a forager would: what is blooming when, where the water sits, which corner holds the afternoon sun. Then we write it down for you — planting that feeds pollinators across the season, and hive placement if you decide to keep bees after all.
Spring enrollment
Tell us where you are in the season and we will point you to the right course — or come to Beekeeping 101 and start at the beginning.