- 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 27th Oct, Steeple Aston
Twitter: @OxNatBees
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Recent Blog Posts
- 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
- Learning from the Bees Conference, Berlin June 24, 2019
- ONBG meeting, 15th June 2019 – TBHs, Freedom hives and a surprise swarm June 16, 2019
- Swarm stories June 2, 2019
- Grow, shake or drum? Transferring bees between hive types April 26, 2019
- ONBG meeting, 6th April 2019 – TBHs April 12, 2019
- ONBG meeting, 9th March 2019 – new season, new faces! March 30, 2019
- New adventures March 3, 2019
- Training new beeks March 1, 2019
- Moving hives less than 3 miles February 21, 2019
- ONBG Meeting, 1st Dec 2018 – insulation and instrumentation December 30, 2018
- Learnings from the Learning from the Bees conference November 27, 2018
- Meditations on the Learning from the Bees conference November 8, 2018
- Hive insulation using cork October 27, 2018
- ONBG meeting, 22nd Sept 2018 – hive hacks and natural selection September 30, 2018
Tag Archives: Queries
Grow, shake or drum? Transferring bees between hive types
Recently a question was raised on the OxNatBees members’ mailing list on how to transfer bees from one hive type to another where the bars are incompatible, in this case from a National deep brood box to a Warré. The … Continue reading
Posted in Group Digest, Hives, ONBG, Warré
Tagged Drumming, Grow down, Queries, Shook swarm, Transferring colonies, Warré
1 Comment
Moving hives less than 3 miles
The “3 foot / 3 mile” rule-of-thumb refers to how if you move a hive more than 3 feet, sometimes returning foragers cannot find it. Their internal maps are so precise they get confused, and keep looking where the entrance … Continue reading
New bees update
I spent a lot of time observing the bees this morning and wanted to share my findings with the group for comments and guidance. As some of the flying bees had been returning to where the hive had been originally … Continue reading
First bees
On wednesday, 23rd May, I had a call from Harry that a ‘pestaker’ was bringing a swarm from Tetbury about 40 minutes away. I dashed over to Shilton and waited to usher the ‘pestaker into the drive’ He arrived in a BMW and … Continue reading
swarms
I was wondering whether the split in my colony on Saturday would definitely lessen the urge to swarm and it seems from Lynne’s post it may not! Don’t know what to suggest Lynne- how frustrating. Perhaps the popcorn might be … Continue reading
Swarming from split and multiple casts
Yesterday the hive that Paul split – see previous post – swarmed from the ‘original’ colony half. So the split didn’t make them feel any less like swarming- but hey, I’m telling myself it’s just a good strong colony maybe… … Continue reading
Bearding or Massive clearance sale on drones?
A week on from the hive split and I noticed a lot of bees on the outside of the hive I split. See how the other hive, in the background of this picture, has no “beard” outside the entrance? If … Continue reading
