The Observant Beekeeper by Paul Honigmann What makes this textbook stand out from others is the concise clear explanations and reasons for carrying out procedures with the pros and cons for each cons...

Interested in alternative #beekeeping techniques like #TF, #Warre hives, #TBH, #skep & other non-standard approaches? "Reading" hives without opening them? Me too. So here's a (huge) book with all the stuff you can't find elsewhere: www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/products/the...

Swarms generally travel a few hundred metres (yards). Veeeery occasiinally, a mile.
Commercial beekeepers ship bees hundreds of miles (thousands in USA) complete with comb.
This is how varroa spread across entire countries in a couple of years per country.

March 2026 meeting: Wide Area Networking 25 excited treatment-free beekeepers from 5 counties met at historic Christ Church College, Oxford to meet and share experiences over food and drink. Following a convivial lunch and a couple of pre…

Inspiration for setting up your own group of alternative beekeepers: unfashionably positive vibes!
oxnatbees.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/m...

I gave a Zoom talk to the Swiss organisation FreeTheBees.ch , outlining a UK low intervention beekeeping approach. @bbka.org.uk @freethebees.bsky.social -
oxnatbees.wordpress.com/2026/02/21/t...

Lies, damned lies, and beekeeping statistics: Paul Honigmann Paul Honigmann author of The Observant Beekeeper challenges some commonly held beekeeping beliefs and uses

An alternative take on some foundational assumptions behind beekeeping: www.beelistener.co.uk/beekeeping-e...

I misread the film title "12 Angry Men" as "12 Hungry Men", now that would be a very different film...

I will be giving a Zoom talk (in English) on Feb 18th titled Lessons from Low Intervention Beekeeping:
freethebees.ch/language/en/...
Covering how to "read" a hive without opening it, how wild bees survive and some international comparisons. @britishbee

Winter hive checks, non invasively On cold winter days, we don’t see bees flying, but we all want to know, as observant beekeepers, how our colonies are doing during this difficult time. Melted snow at an entrance implies warm…

How do you inspect a hive in cold weather? @bbka.org.uk oxnatbees.wordpress.com/2026/01/07/w...

Going with the flow: the Tao of Bee Fanning air around is hard work! So bees minimise the effort needed for hive ventilation by using some simple physical principles to move air for them – like convection, and shaping comb. The…

The ways #bees move air around #hives are very cunning. They're masters of fulfilling several functions simultaneously, with least effort. This article considers some little known implications for hive design @bbka.org.uk oxnatbees.wordpress.com/2025/12/16/g...

This should be combined with the other recent fess about putting googly eyes on work notices.

Good practical article, thank you.
Do you think mice might gnaw through these plastic mouse guards? Or is it a very hard plastic?

Glad to hear of more real honey entering the market; hopefully it will displace fake syrup based ones.

Talk on low intervention beekeeping tonight, 7PM GMT. Free tickets: cbka.org.uk/events-talks subjects: inspecting hives without opening; swarms and genetics; wild colonies; disease / pest control @bbka.org.uk

Thanks - great to have sensible advice from someone who has experience of Asian Hornets

ONBG meeting, September 2025: Talking bees Half a dozen of us met at Gilliane’s for a meal and, well, just to Talk Bees for an afternoon! It was raining, and too cold to open her hives so we huddled indoors and shared stories and wisd…

Bunch of us met up and chilled about #bees , comb, hornets, microclimates, wax moth, hive ventilation, satellite nests, more bees. Good company, good fun. World needs more of this. @bbka.org.uk wp.me/p2l0XA-39f

Networking with our neighbours Members of our group of Treatment-Free (TF) beekeepers visited a neighbouring group and in a packed day, heard talks on: Novel ways to structure such groups and engage with local communities A very…

When two groups of Treatment Free #beekeepers meet, both learn loads.
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The number of TF beeks is huge, we have friends everywhere...

I knew a committed recycler / environmentalist / engineer who installed a grey water system in his house. He found it built up mould + biofilms so needed bleach added every few weeks. He was gutted.

Winter losses – comparing apples and oranges Way back in 2016 we began surveying our members for winter loss data, because there was no hard data on whether treatment-free colonies performed better than conventionally managed hives. At the ti…

Argh! Try
oxnatbees.wordpress.com/2025/07/22/winter-losses-comparing-apples-and-oranges

Are honeybees struggling?
Well, it depends.
Bees in low stress "treatment free" hives seem to be doing OK.
I also discuss some of the pitfalls of trying to compare surveys:
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ONBG meeting, June 2025 – combs and wildflowers 15 bee-folk gathered at Claire and Daves’ garden to have lunch in a marquee, see their varied hives, and wander wonderingly in their huge wildflower meadow. Claire and Dave had opened their g…

#Bees, tea, cake and wildflower meadows
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Who's a pretty wasp?

Yes, just as you move around the train and can breathe OK etc as your local "reference frame". It's quite a deep thought actually and is said to be part of how Einstein got thinking about stuff like Special Relativity - so keep pondering!

As you're in Ireland, do you use Amm bees?

ONBG meeting, May 2025 – bees, hives and swarms Just before World Bee Day, a dozen beekeepers met at Gareth and Lynnes’ lovely garden and apiary to share bee wisdom, meet peers, learn about hive construction subtleties, and look in some st…

Treatment-Free #beekeeping (no miticides) is thriving in Britain. Our TF group met recently to talk about #bees, hives and eat cake: oxnatbees.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/o...

Thanks! I shalluse that as a jumping off point for experimenting...

Can you say what shutter speed, lens and other settings you used? I can't get fast shots that clear (most likely camera/lens limitations, but maybe I'm making a fundamental mistake)

I used to campaign on this so had to read the research. The companies that make them simply don't test them against bees etc. No data means they can tick the "no known effect" box.

I have seen a report by an American beekeeper about how street spraying for mosquitoes almost immediately killed the hives in his back yard. Insecticides are NOT species specific. They don't do the soil's worms, or water runoff streams' life any good either.

For many years our group's aim has been to replenish the area's varroa resistant 'survivor stock' by nurturing swarms from wild colonies. These are no longer rare (hurrah!) and we may need to adjust our methods. A good problem to have.

Swarm numbers vary a lot. I enjoy catching them and pass spares to like minded people with empty hives. Last year I caught 7 by the end of swarm season (mid April to late June). This year... 16 already. Everyone's running out of hives to put them in! We're beginning to merge into existing colonies.