- ONBG (OxNatBees) is an informal mutual support network for beginners and experienced beeks who aspire to practise bee-centric, low intervention, and chemical-free beekeeping in Oxfordshire. To join the group and share ideas, questions, information and experiences, please use this site's Contact Us form.
Next ONBG Meeting
Sunday 19th July 3-5PM, Oxford
Twitter: @OxNatBees
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Recent Blog Posts
- Lockdown winter projects February 27, 2021
- Book review: Treatment Free Beekeeping, by David Heaf February 9, 2021
- Horizontal hive types January 17, 2021
- Bees Without Borders: conference report November 23, 2020
- Winter is coming November 7, 2020
- Winter survival surveys show ‘treatment-free’ works August 5, 2020
- ONBG meeting, July 2020: a Bee Tea at Dee Cottage July 20, 2020
- Book Review – Interviews with Beekeepers by Steve Donohoe July 1, 2020
- Look up during lockdown May 1, 2020
- Preparing for swarm season April 4, 2020
- Covid-19: evolution in action March 31, 2020
- A new hive design: the Drayton hive February 27, 2020
- Victorian Twitterstorms February 4, 2020
- Top Bar Hives, warts and all January 4, 2020
- ONBG meeting, October 2019: Hive envy! November 9, 2019
- Convergent theories September 17, 2019
- Learning from the Bees, Berlin – bees au naturel! September 11, 2019
- ONBG+ meeting, August 2019: insulation, cavity size, Golden Hives August 19, 2019
- ONBG meeting, July 2019 – what makes a good hive? July 25, 2019
- At the village fete June 30, 2019
Tag Archives: Feeding
ONBG meeting, 9th Sept 2017 – colony personalities, and ferals
Eleven bee enthusiasts met in north Oxfordshire to discuss preparation for winter, look at feral colonies around a village, and discuss how colony personalities differ. This last is because we get a lot of questions from people concerned that their … Continue reading
Posted in Apiary visits, Meetings, ONBG, Stings, TBH, Warré
Tagged Feeding, Feral, feral bees, Personalities, Personality
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Summer starvation warning
The National Bee Unit has just issued a starvation alert for parts of the UK. Here in Oxfordshire, we’ve had a great start to the year, the bees have boomed, hives were heavy with stores early in the year and … Continue reading
ONBG meeting and apiary visit, 10th Sept 2016
Over the course of an occasionally rainy afternoon 18 people dropped by Paul’s house and apiary in the village of Steeple Aston to discuss Autumn tasks, winter stores assessment, feeding, harvesting, and observe various Warré and Top Bar hives and … Continue reading
Posted in Apiary visits, Hives, Honey, Meetings, ONBG, Products, TBH, Warré
Tagged ants, Autumn, Feeding, feral bees, syrup, Wasps
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ONBG meeting, 19th Sept 2015
7 Warré beekeepers met on a sunny Autumn afternoon in the village of Fringford, north Oxfordshire to examine local colonies, discuss feeding, forage, winter preparation and colony behaviour. We began with a demonstration by David of his elegant hive lifting … Continue reading
Winter wasps, and fondant feeding
Here in Oxfordshire we’ve had an extraordinarily mild winter so far. It’s December 27th and the bees are still flying a bit, on sunny days, because the temperature is up to 10C outside. There are also a few wasps raiding … Continue reading
Meeting on 10 November 2012
Today ten beekeepers gathered here in Headington for coffee and tea and biscuits. We introduced ourselves and our beekeeping experience, as Peter at least was new to the group, and then we had a very instructive talk by Gareth on … Continue reading
Drones out! and No more syrup!
I have been obediently following advice and feeding my bees as they really needed a lot of stores – everything was very lightweight in August when I last checked them. Every day a 750ml jar of thick syrup was emptied … Continue reading