- 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
- 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
- Learning from the Bees Conference, Berlin June 24, 2019
- ONBG meeting, 15th June 2019 – TBHs, Freedom hives and a surprise swarm June 16, 2019
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
