Friendly Haven Rise Farm is a pretty 35 minute drive NE of Portland, OR. or ten minutes east of Battle Ground, WA

Read more about Jacqueline’s bee book on our bee site <–click here

Want a career working with horses? Visit Joseph’s vocational school here:
The EQUINE Natural Movement School 

Thanks to everyone who attended our APPLE FESTs over the years. We saw many old friends and made new ones. Over 200 apples we tasted and the Home Orchard Society even identified a NEW apple, discovered, growing in Clark County. Wahoo!

My bee book and ongoing bee classes <–Learn to be a friend to bees. Beekeepers, novices and nature lovers welcome.

In 2017, Susan Chernak McElroy and I co-founded a nonprofit called PRESERVATION BEEKEEPING. We teach people in how to care for and have respectful relationships with bees and native pollinators.

 

We offer a natural perspective that embodies respect, kindness and sacredness of Life. Use your senses (and common sense) to understand what they are doing from season to season. Good for new beekeepers and bee-friendly gardeners who want to care for bees in a non-conventional, organic and biodynamic manner. You’ll also hear an embarrassing list of mistakes I’ve made over the years with the hope that you won’t have to repeat these errors. Excellent background if you’re thinking of keeping bees and wonderfully helpful knowledge for non-beekeepers who want to know more ways to help bees thrive. (You’ll be surprised!)

“QUEEN OF THE SUN” (the movie)

Near everyone knows honeybees are struggling right now. What can we do to help them? This film visits 20 beekeepers from around the world who are doing their best to make things right in the bee kingdom. With different backgrounds ranging from researchers and scientists to rural and city beekeepers to community swarm rescuer (that would be me!), we all speak our part. The movie is graced with Vandana Shiva and Michael Pollan who also speak about the broad role bees play in the world. Stunningly photographed, the movie has won a dozen awards. (available on Netflix)

Through my nonprofit, Susan Chernak McElroy and I offer bee classes. Visit the site to see what’s next. Generally, Susan usually teaches the beginner classes and I cover the advanced ones (including swarms). www.PreservationBeekeeping.com

All classes suspended during the pandemic. We are working on getting them online but not done yet.

THE HONEYBEE FAMILY

The hive is an interconnected superorganism, a unique living being made of the entire colony. Learn the individual roles of each bee, about these fascinating, generous little creatures and their caring family relationships.

SACRED APICULTURE

Bees were once thought to be heavenly messengers, an expression of wisdom in the universe. The oneness of the bee colony reveals the interconnectedness of the world and of ourselves within the world. In modern agriculture, this deeper meaning has been lost. With a bee-centered approach we can re-establish a reverent and respectful relationship with them. Come with an open heart.

HONEY, WAX, POLLEN, PROPOLIS & ROYAL JELLY

Taste 30 different kinds of honey, pollens, herbal medicinals made with hive products, and hand process honey from the hive. You will appreciate the bees even more after this lively class.

BEE HEALTH

Be proactive and build up the strength of your hives so they are the fullest expression of healthy bees. Naturally prevent CCD and other diseases. This is NOT a class on how to use chemicals on bees, rather it’s about providing the most bee-friendly environment possible to help strong bees thrive.

THE SPIRIT OF THE HONEYBEE

Deeply profound wisdom from the bees about the different roles they play in Nature.

BEE HIVE HOMES

Langstroth, Top Bar, Warre hives, straw skeps, tree hives, habitat hives, mud hives and other interesting bee domiciles. Know how to care for each kind of hive. Choose the hive you want to use and be ready for the start of bee season.

GARDENING FOR HONEYBEES

Encourage bees to thrive with the best nutrition available. What better place than in your garden? Big or small, your garden can provide plants with the best nectar, pollen, natural medicinals, and long-season forage. In class we’ll design individual planting guides for each person. Got seeds to trade? Please bring them along.

SWARMS & FERAL BEES

 (April & May when the bees are swarming)
Our bees are from wild swarms with good genetic diversity. They are naturally strong and healthy and you can’t buy wildness. Learn to peacefully interact with and collect a swarm of your own. You can even encourage wild swarms to populate hives on their own. Be available after this class to go on calls to collect swarms with other class members.

BEE CARE THROUGH THE YEAR

The bee’s annual cycle, month to month. What are your responsibilities? Know what is happening inside your hive without opening it up, by observing bee behavior and learning what all their signs mean.

Tell me you want to attend by sending an email to info@SpiritBee.com

OTHER CLASSES we’ve offered 

Because we’ve focused in on mostly bees and horses, we haven’t been teaching these classes lately, but we may again offer them. They were a LOT of fun and we know our students had a great time learning and then applying the knowledge.

BIODYNAMIC COMPOST: How the Magic Works

Biodynamic Compost is something special. This method of combining animal manures and organic wastes is known for its ability to bring outstanding nutrition and remarkable healthy growth to garden plants, fruits and vegetables. Biodynamic compost is made with unique plant and mineral preparations that  increase soil health and emanate energetic frequencies that vitalize the farm. We will build a functional mineralized compost pile, innoculate it with the biodynamic preparations, stir vortexes into biodynamic preps to activate them and learn the proper way to apply the sprays on gardens, pastures and orchards.

Research at Washington State University (WSU) found that biodynamic composts have higher temperatures, mature faster, have more beneficial nitrates than normal compost piles and are effective even in homeopathic quantities. This work also has a spiritual component — come with an open mind and warm heart.

Build a COMPOST TEA MAKER

Make a compost tea maker and improve your garden’s health. Learn the importance of foliar feeding and how to vastly improve each plant’s nutritional density. Save a bundle. Build a COMPOST TEA MAKER with us and then take it home and make all the compost tea you want. Your garden will LOVE that you’ve done this for it!

A compost tea maker can improve your garden’s health magnificently. Compost tea is a liquid microbial blend that significantly adds nutrients to your plants, puts beneficial organisms into the soil that supports the plants that grow in it, and also builds organic matter in that soil as well as improves the soil structure. It’s wonderful stuff.

While really good compost can contain millions of beneficial organisms, compost tea adds billions and it can do it all in one application. The tea is aerated, not leached like normal tea, and includes food sources for all the microorganisms that multiply like crazy while the tea is brewing. One of the best reasons for having your own tea maker is because the tea is at its absolute peak for just the first few hours after brewing. Six hours later it’s already losing potency.

Compost tea makers sell for pretty hefty prices. Even small ones range from $150-400+, though we can’t figure out why they’re so expensive when they’re so simple to make. That’s why we teach this class. Come on up to the farm and make one with us. Everyone will go home with a five gallon size tea maker. While you’re here we’ll show you our 55 gallon compost tea maker, too. Love this stuff!

Taught by Joseph Freeman.

Non-Dairy FRUIT KEFIR SODA

Kefir is known worldwide for promoting longevity and good health. Learn to make healthful juice drinks that are filled with probiotics and tasty, too. EASY and inexpensive way to create juices that are good for your family. Save on the high costs of soda and fruit juices.

This beverage is fruit-infused, naturally carbonated, healthful and oh-so refreshing. Water kefir crystals are a culture from bacteria and yeast. The microbes feed off the sugars and create the most delicious and healthful drink we have ever had. Thirst quenching and delicious.

Water kefir is a unique way of drinking your probiotics. It is not kombucha (too tart for me), lends itself easily to being non-dairy and is simple to make. Just mix it up and let it mature for a day or so. Strain off the crystals and repeat, repeat, repeat. When your crystals multiply (which they will do), share them with friends.

Class includes LOTS of samples, history, creative demonstrations and kefir crystals so you can make them yourself. Forever.

Jacqueline teaches this. She’s made a few gallons of this wonderful soda every 48 hours for 5 years. If it wasn’t totally simple she’d never have done that! If you want to carpool, let us know and we will connect you with others who are coming.

BACKYARD GOATS

Here’s a good strong basic course for beginning goatkeepers and folks who are considering keeping them.  Yes, you can, even in an urban environment (they come in all sizes). Topics include

* The healthy goat
* Different breeds and dairy goat characteristics
* Nutrition and feeding
* Hoof care (hands on!)
* What to know about pregnancy and delivery
* Seasonal care
* Housing and pastures, including toxic plants
(see them live so you can recognize them)
* Parasites – how to prevent and deal with them
* Horns, on or off?
* Dealing with both sexes
* Keeping them in good condition
* Comparisons of natural and conventional health practices

And a lot of laughter, especially with our pet kids around. Taught by Virginia Triplett who’s raised a robustly healthy herd of happy goats since 1977.
Tell us you want to attend by sending an email to friendlyhaven@gmail.com

BACKYARD CHICKENS from A to Z

Whoo boy, do we have a lot to teach in this one! You’ll leave here ready to provide a wonderful home for a flock of egg layers AND smart as a whip about how to care for them. Very useful for new folks as well as moderately experienced folks. If you want, we have FULL setups with all the equipment, too.
Topics include:

* The chicken family, who does what (and how they do it)
* Egg laying
* Handling chickens and taming them
* Keeping them in good health, dealing with pests
* Moulting, bathing and keeping clean
* Fences and predators, keeping your hens safe
* Coops and nesting boxes
* What they like to eat (bugs and slugs – yum!)
* Hot, wet and cold weather
* Benefits of different breeds
* Young chicks and egg-layers for sale, all organically hand-raised
* And stories about chickens we’ve known and loved

Brenda Wilson is a well known chicken expert. She rescues injured birds, is a 4H leader (hens and pigeons) and has been tending chickens for 40 years. She LOVES birds, is full of knowledge and is a lot of fun to learn from.

Grow EXCEPTIONAL FOOD

Raise the life force and nutrient density of your soil, water, fruits and vegetables. All kinds of ingenious ways to raise fruits and vegetables that are FULL of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and have extraordinary taste. Learn about ormus, brix, biodynamic vortexes, dowsing, intention, balancing minerals, even the power of blessing.

This is a very unusual and high-spirited class filled with practical information you’ll use immediately. Steve Diver is one one of America’s top organic farming advisors whose expertise is on growing food with high nutritional density. Make your soil, your garden and you flourish.