Skep Beekeeping - Looking to the Past to Look to the Future

Chris Park

The Past: Old Ways and Wisdoms

Looking to the past we can see that we inhabit the "Isle of Honey" and the land of circles. Great ring-shaped enclosures and rotund homesteads, round houses and circular boats, curved earthworks, domed burial chambers, giant circular temples of standing stone and humble circular beehives. Consider the legendary round table... the word "church" is rooted in the word circle, reminding us of older sanctuaries like the sacred groves of antiquity. Our horizon is also rounded and a druidic eye can view the domed, starry night sky above us as a giant skep.

The romantic image of a straw skep on a stand has inspired many societies and institutions with its symbolism and allegory. Being a symbol it speaks without words directly to the soul or sub-conscious. It has a trans-rational charm, but there is also lot more of benefit than meets the eye and delights the heart. Through experimenting with and practicing skep beekeeping one can know that there was some simple wisdom in the old ways.

Chris with an occupied hive.

The tools of a skep maker. These are Chris Park's tools, with the driving irons on the right. Photo: Roger Patterson

Examples of Chris’ work.

Examples of Chris’ work.

Examples of Chris’ work.

The Beginning of Hiving Bees

So where did it start? Archaeologists are undecided upon a date and even the era that we stopped honey hunting and started "keeping" bees in this neck of the woods. I provide here a very rough evolution of our relationship with honey bees.

Our ancestors have been stealing honeycomb and brood from bees since they were able to climb trees. These practices became more cunning and developed. Many eons later European forest beekeepers were managing wild colonies high up inside trees, cutting doors to enable access to the comb and leaving their personal mark upon the trunk. In many areas this evolved into collating the colonies within special clearings, fenced or walled off from bears and deer, containing either hollow log hives or bark hives stood on end. They were sometimes roofed with straw, wood or slate. These wooded clearings were often found on a south-facing slope and were sometimes called a "gardd" or "garth". In northern Spain we find the stone walled "Albariza". The use of the log hive waned, perhaps because of their weight or a need for a more easily moveable hive. The use of basket hives or skeps then proliferated.

Some archaeologists assume the use of pottery hives, however, this may have been a more Mediterranean phenomena. The basket hives were predominantly woven out of hazel and willow, and were daubed or "cloomed" with dung, clay and other materials. They were of varying shapes and sizes. Some conical, some domed. Curiously, the Welsh word for bee hive is "cwch", which also means boat. The coracle fishing ancient Britons housed themselves in wicker buildings plastered with daub and topped with a thatched roof. Daub is one of the first composite materials, often a mix of manure, clay, subsoil, straw, hair, blood, oils etc. Essentially some sticky stuff and some plant or animal derived fibres. The earliest bee baskets were designed on a similar technology, and covered with a straw or reed hat. This new manageable habitat for honey bees was created utilising the same materials and technology that we used for our own habitat.

It is thought that straw skeps came into fashion during the Anglo-Saxon period, giving us the classical image of a skep on a stand that we know today. This straw craft, called lip work, has survived the test of time, and I’m sure many of you have a straw skep handy for swarm collection. Long straw varieties of wheat, rye, moor grasses and rushes were commonly-used materials. This was fed in to a cow horn to determine and uniform the thickness of the coils. A grooved bone needle (often of bird bone, or the cannon bone of a deer) helped to sew up the skep with a piece of lapping made of a traditional split material like willow or bramble (two members of the plant kingdom that bees know well).

The name "skep" derives from the Anglo Saxon "skeppa" meaning basket. Consider the last syllable of the word basket. There aren’t many skep beekeepers around this day and age, and some have simply kept a skep going for a season or two out of curiosity. There are more serious enthusiasts around. Like them, I keep a skep apiary, experimenting with various methods of construction, size, shape, materials, shelters and systems of use.

How Honey was Harvested

When I mention skep beekeeping to knowledgeable beekeepers two comments usually arise: "we can’t do that anymore because you have to kill the bees to harvest the honey" and something about "bee boles", the alcoves set into cottage or garden walls to house skeps. A skep needs some protection from the elements or it will soon rot and decay. Bee boles are just one solution. Others are open sided sheds with shelves for the colonies, single stands with hackles (straw or reed hats), skep houses and even old basins or creamers.

Let us dispel the myth that bees need to be sulphured or drowned to be able to harvest honey. Some beemasters did, but not all. Being the favourite technique of Charles Butler, it gained much press when he published "The Feminine Monarchie" in 1623. There were and are of course other successful and less barbaric methods. The simplest way of harvesting honey from a skep is cutting a piece of honeycomb out from the sides, sometimes called "castrating" the comb. A cottage beekeeper could simply go and cut some more when the honey pot in the larder was empty. Sometimes an "Eke" (an extra section of about 5 coils of straw) is added underneath the skep for the bees to draw honey stores down in to. Another technique used is to drive the bees from a skep that is full to the brim, no later than midsummer. This involves up turning the colony and pinning an empty skep to the top with two iron staples and an iron pin (driving irons) or hazel spars and a hazel skewer, then rhythmically drumming the bottom skep. The bees' natural instinct is to walk orderly upwards to a dark place. After about 20–30 minutes all the bees have occupied the top skep, which is placed onto the original stand and they have the rest of the season to build themselves up ready for the winter. From the original skep, honeycomb, wax and brood are harvested. This may also be done in the Autumn, and the bees are united with another colony, the honeycomb removed, any brood comb may be pinned into a new skep and stock introduced. Another system involves multiple layers of skeps, akin to a brood box and supers. The bottom flat-topped skep goes through the winter, and has a hole in the top that is opened when a "super" skep is placed on top. At the end of the season the top skep is removed and only honeycomb and wax is harvested. There is no queen excluder, but a three-inch diameter hole in the top of the brood skep for the bees to travel through and extend the comb. Some drone brood may have been laid in the top skep above the hole, but by the end of the season it will have been replaced with honey stores.

Some Pros and Cons

How is skep beekeeping relevant and of value to contemporary beekeeping? Skep beekeeping grew out of fashion when moveable frame hives became popular. Were some babies thrown out with the bathwater? Some obvious disadvantages of skep beekeeping to the contemporary beekeeper are the difficulty in inspecting brood comb, an inability to use foundation or reuse drawn out supers and swarm management.

Here is a list of some of the advantages of skep beekeeping.

• They are round to suit the shape of the bees’ cluster. This eliminates cold corners and enables the vertical, oval shape of the brood to develop naturally, not being forced to expand sideways. Charles Butler preferred slightly egg-shaped skeps to suit the natural shape of the comb.

• They are natural, breathable and well insulated.

•The bees draw pure virgin comb, reducing traces of chemicals or miticides from recycled wax foundation that may be affecting the fertility of queens and drones.

• The bees orientate the comb the way they like it to manage the ventilation and logistics of the colony. In my experience they draw it the cold way, although I have known one colony to draw two small ‘windbreak’ combs the warm way by the entrance (a rather large entrance on this particular skep).

• The bees decide on their own cell size.

• Minimal inspection means:

• The colony’s scent is disturbed less

• The colony’s temperature is maintained (consider Varroa)

• There is minimal risk of spreading disease (consider foul broods)

• Propolis is damaged less (one colony last winter built a curtain of propolis across the entrance with two small holes in. They made their own mouse guard and hygienic entrance.

• Bees are squashed less (consider Nosema).

• Bees are smoked less.

• Comb is broken less.

• Bees are stressed less.

• Honey bees are allowed to swarm. This is a natural way of re-queening, and an effective form of varroa control.

Skep Beekeeping: Research, Resurgence and Resilience.

New eyes on skep beekeeping has been part of the reason for a resurgence of interest in bees and beekeeping that has blossomed, including a rich diversification in styles of honey bee keeping, a widening of the perspectives of beekeepers and a rebirth of sensitivities towards more bee centred approaches.

We are seeing a renaissance of more natural ways of beekeeping. Natural beekeeping groups, trusts and societies are proliferating as one of the many responses to recent and current problems with beekeeping practices, pests and diseases. Hence, keeping honey bees in skeps is recently receiving interest from those seeking new solutions, old ways or natural inspirations. It has always been of interest to those with an interest in the history and the heritage of honey, and now it is fascinating folk with an interest in the resilience of ancient technologies, the simplicity of natural and locally sourced materials and from those looking for a more bee-centered approach (assuming that no-one is interested in reviving the practice of sulphuring the bees, and can I reassure you that I have not yet met anybody who is).

Our passions and inspirations as beekeepers to ensure and entrust a harmonious and sustainable craft can be vast and varied. Some folks passion might be artificially inseminating queens and establishing breeding apiaries whilst another's may be keeping bees in hives designed upon Pythagorean principles and leaving them all the honey... all with valid and fascinating results. We have historically seen beekeepers developing their own unique styles, quirks and ways of working, influenced by inherited systems, mentored techniques, beekeeping courses and innovated practices. Over the last couple of centuries, due to many different factors, an homogenisation and refinement had occurred in beekeeping practices, and the choice of a few standard box hives, until fairly recently, had been the norm. However, human nature ensures that you’ll rarely find two beekeepers with exactly the same opinions and preferences, even if using the same equipment. It is often the case that once new beekeepers have found their feet and confidence, gained enough experience and practice and completed ample research, they will adopt and develop their own preferences and practices. Some sound advice for many aspects of life might be "to find one’s own truth... and then live it", whilst, within good reason and ethic, respecting the truths and inspirations of others. Inspiration indeed may be one of the keys to a marvellous existence.

From the middle of the seventeenth century, wooden, stacking hives and a myriad of contraptions for keeping bees began to be developed and were marketed. About a century later, moveable frame hives were being designed and the BBKA and Central Association of Beekeepers were founded. Beforehand, some had considered early frame hives as "observation" hives and that their primary value was for education and science. The irrepressible spirits of enquiry and science have continued to progress our awareness of apiculture, honey bee behaviour and biology. However, the practice of keeping bees in a basket didn’t altogether disappear. Skeps continued to be used widely as swarm-collecting vessels par excellence. Skep beekeeping, in both wicker and straw, persevered in small pockets in Britain and Europe. It was preserved and rekindled by dedicated individuals and skeppists. It was mostly continued by those beyond the net of the media, perhaps the eccentric and cantankerous, maybe the romantic and the non-conformist, certainly by Scottish crofters, by German heathlanders (1) who managed skeps for cut comb and wax and by Dutch lowlanders who hired skeps out for pollination purposes and islanders beyond the ninth wave.

One can also seek out conversation with skeppists, makers, enthusiasts, craftspeople, bee masters and those who have professionally trod the paths of research. Some contemporary research into skep beekeeping has been pioneered notably by The International Bee Research Association (IBRA) who archive a wealth of images, artefacts and articles. Through the skilful work of Eva Crane and her precious work "The Archaeology of Beekeeping” (2), and through Frank Alston, practically and concisely in his book "Skeps, Their History, Making and Us” (3). It is also of interest to mention the small publication by Rev E Nobbs through BIBBA (Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association), "Make your own skep and revive a lost art" and another pamphlet titled "Skep Making" by Toon Brecklemans. The craft and practice of skep making within these shores and beyond owes much to the following notable experts: Firstly to Karl Showler (4), a prolific writer of articles (5) and essays and a skep-making demonstrator; to the tireless commercial skep maker David Chubb of Cotswold Bee Skeps (6); to the basket and skep maker Martin Buckle and his informative website (7); to George Hawthorne and his craft. Needless to say, as with all aspects of life, you can find much to read and look at on the subject across the World Wide Web.

Skep beekeeping literature

Looking further back to a time when skep beekeeping was more commonplace, there are many charming and educational academic texts. Their scientific knowledge and accuracy is of course dated and limited. However, the insight into the mechanics, intricacies and logistics of skep beekeeping is invaluable. Here I list just a few in chronological order with some quotations.

C. Butler’s magnum opus, "The Feminine Monarchie" (1614). This wondrous glimpse into the life of an ancient bee master is very enjoyable once you get your mind around the spelling and flowery language. He managed slightly egg-shaped skeps. "The bees do best defend themselves from cold, when they hang around together in the manner of a Sphere or a Globe (which the philosophers account the most perfect figure) and therefore the nearer the hive cometh to the fashion thereof, the warmer and safer be the bees". He says of fastening a hackle (straw/reed cover) to a skep: "first take a litch of strong reedes, and having wetted and wound it a little, put it about the neck of the hackle, and knitting the ends in a half knot, girt the hackle hard with it".

T. Wildman’s "A Treatise On The Management Of Bees" (1768) is beautifully illustrated. Strictly not a skeppist, but a pioneer of a cylindrical straw hive with top bars, akin to the ‘Greek Hive’. A fascinating document. His preferred material being straw at a time of early wooden alternatives... "straw hives, as far as regards the bees, are preferable to any other habitations, because the straw is not so liable to be heated by the rays of the sun at noon, to which they are generally exposed, and is better security against the cold, than any kind of wood or other material." The treatise is woven throughout with poetry, and wise words from the likes of Virgil and Ovid, and anecdotes and observations of his contemporaries engaged in innovation. Wildman was an avid spokesman for not sulphuring the bees to harvest honey and wax.

H. Taylor’s "The Bee-Keepers Manual" (1838) discusses both straw and wooden hives. He goes into some nice detail on hive stands and floor boards. "In size the floor-board ought to be a little larger than the exterior of the hive, from whence it should be chamfered down every way, to three-eighths of an inch at the edge." He preferred a small capacity skep for warmth.

A. Pettigrew’s "The Handy Book of Bees" (1870) returns the reader to a strict focus on skeps. I find it to be a very handy and amusing book. Known as "the Bee-man’s son" due to his father earning the title "the Bee-man" he preferred skeps of large capacity for maximum yield of honey and larger swarms. "The shape of hives may be rather conical at the top, or flat-crowned. It is a matter of taste and convenience this. Some bee-masters like one sort and some the other." He also comments on artificial swarming with skeps.

Standing upon the shoulders of these writers, researchers, crafts people and skep makers, through experimenting with materials, through working skeps in all seasons, one can hone a contemporary practice of skep beekeeping and expand a skep apiary utilising various systems, shelters and preferences as I have done. Of course, the primary source of learning is in the practice, one’s relationship with the bees and the seasons, the materials, the dynamics between the honey bee colonies and the environment they are situated in. My skep apiary is experimental and contains skep hives of various sizes and materials, utilising several different shelters and systems of management. Sometimes I am harvesting wax and honey, at other times keeping colonies for early swarms the following year, sometimes "driving the bees" into empty skeps, at other times settling swarms. I have also added open mesh floors to some of the skep stands. There is much more to do and learn. I am currently experimenting with mixing different daubs or clomb for wicker hives, different styles of hackle and varying the position of the entrance of the skep.

It is interesting that bees in skeps, being left to manage their own comb and be in control of their own ventilation predominantly draw their comb the "cold way" (in parallel lines pointing toward the entrance). I usually face the entrances southwards, and had wondered if the North- South alignment was perhaps magnetic. However, I recently had an entrance facing WSW and they aligned the comb the "cold way" still. I am constantly enchanted and surprised at their behaviour. Last winter a colony in a wicker hive (sometimes referred to as an alveary) with a letterbox entrance, sealed their door with a curtain of propolis, leaving just two bee sized round holes.

I find that teaching skep making and skep beekeeping and exhibiting is also of great value. I run skep making and skep beekeeping courses all throughout the year and visit a number of clubs and associations. I am continually meeting like-minded folk and always learning something new, hearing anecdotes from someone's family history or a fascinating piece of folklore.

However one’s beekeeping practice develops, skep beekeeping entails extra responsibilities. It is not just a matter of throwing a swarm in a basket and away you go. In some parts of the USA, keeping bees on fixed comb rather than moveable frames is illegal. Developing best practice is important, whether you wish to establish a working apiary for harvesting honey and wax and swarms, or if you are simply keeping bees for pollination purposes, or for simple pleasures and enjoyment. Bees have seen aeons come and go, and those that aren't "kept" can do perfectly well by themselves if their environment is abundant and healthy. They are wild animals and the honest transaction of the keeper who harvests honey is thus; one gives them a good home, protects them from pests and diseases and in return takes a harvest. Simplicity may be one of the keys to success. Within skep beekeeping, the advantages are numerous for the bees and the keeper, but the disadvantages demand careful responsibility.

Developing Best Practice

Quality beekeeping entails social responsibilities, etiquette and community mindedness... the practice of skep beekeeping accentuates these values.

4a, b and c. 400 years ago the Reverend Charles Butler was revising his book ‘The Feminine Monarchie’, including a four part onomatopoeic madrigal he composed that mimics the piping of the queen bees.Here is a skep, stand and cover (hackle) made in the way he describes in his book, the first publication in the English language dedicated solely to honeybees and beekeeping.Born in High Wycombe, he eventually settled in Hampshire and worked as the vicar of Wootton St. Lawrence. There he kept many colonies of bees in slightly egg-shaped skeps, calibrating the year using the stars and zodiac, extolling the virtues of bees as the source of all music, reading philosophy, campaigning for language reform, teaching about bee history, their behaviour and work, bee crafts, their sweet produce, the making of meads and ‘methaeglen’, apitherapy and bee medicines and much more.

Skep beekeeping may not be something you would ever contemplate exploring, but some of you may, or it may have already have happened to you by accident. As earlier articles have outlined, the advantages of skep beekeeping are many, yet how one approaches the fewer, but major disadvantages is crucial. The most significant problem to tackle is the difficulty in inspecting the fixed comb and perhaps a more minor complication is the honey/wax harvest. Before I write about these, let’s first begin with the basics... siting an apiary.

Siting an Apiary

When choosing a site for skeps, with all the usual considerations, and whether you'll house them under straw hackles, inside bee boles, enclosed in a bee house or on shelves in a shelter, its proximity to the public is of greater importance. Especially so if you adopt a swarming system of management. Swarm control systems do exist for skeps, however it is wise to site them as if you were using a swarming system as your management styles may change over the years, and you may not always anticipate swarming. Due to the restricted access to viewing brood comb, and because queen cells may not always be apparent, one may wish to develop a greater awareness and sensitivity to the behaviour of the colony to assess when a colony will swarm. This skill will take some time to hone. Swarming bees are commonly good tempered, and however educational and fascinating they may be to some, the sound, sight and energy of the bees may still provoke fear and alarm in others. Swarms may become aggressive if they've been hanging around for a while due to bad weather and if their honey stomach reserves become depleted.

We could summarise that life is better on a full stomach and skeps are more sensitively situated away from people and animals. Lure hives or skeps may be reassuring and an out-apiary to house swarms of unknown origin is a good practice. Looking back through time, skeppists and cottage beekeepers, or one of their family or colleagues, were generally around to hear or see a swarm, settle them or raise the alarm. A contemporary, conventional life is very rarely so sedentary. Today's broad-horizoned lifestyle means that one is often far from home even if you keep your bees there.

So here's the paradoxical situation... you've conscientiously sited your skep apiary a good distance from the public and perhaps your home, but you've settled into a system of management that allows your bees to swarm (ensuring natural re-queening, vibrant bees and an effective form of varroa control). You lose many swarms and then what? The majority of us simply won't have the time or will to bother with swarming skeps. There may be some natural beekeepers who might consider these colonies as semiwild, and be happy that they might be providing the world with healthy, happy bees that have been chemical free and developed hygienic behaviour. There won't be many unshackled, extraordinary individuals who experience a spiritual epiphany, and feel that the soul of skep beekeeping is luring one's stressed out, thinly spread, disconnected, highly-mechanised human organism and all that is wrong with the world, back "home" to a simpler, closer, deeper, more sustainable and healthier relationship with all that resides and relates within one's horizon, in-sourcing village sufficiency, real community and integrated aspirations... if there are, changes may begin to appear in their lives. Fundamentally, if you mind about losing the odd swarm, you'll need to give proper consideration to siting your skeps close to home but away from those who may be alarmed by swarms. This will be fairly simple if you live in a rural area, not so easy if suburban, difficult if urban.

The capacity of skeps varies historically from as little as 18 litres up to 50 litres. The skeppists who preferred to keep bees in small skeps certainly enjoyed an early swarming system. Even those who preferred big skeps still sang the praises of allowing bees to swarm. To summarise his chapter on swarming and non-swarming systems in "The Handy Book of Bees", Pettigrew finishes with, "we greatly prefer the swarming mode of management. Hives that do not swarm are often affected and made useless by that terrible and incurable disease, ’foul brood'". He also gives several accounts of hives that had been left to swarm naturally reaching a greater weight than those that hadn't by harvest time.

Healthy Bees

How does one aspire to keep healthy bees in skeps or other fixed comb habitats that are not easily inspected? Once a suitable site for your skep is decided upon, be it a bole in your garden wall or a shelter at a club apiary, the next responsible decision to make is how to stock it.

Throwing a swarm of bees into a basket and letting them get on with it could be considered as irresponsible, yet one might point out that wild colonies of honey bees manage themselves and no one is responsible for them. A colony in an old stone farmhouse wall can yearly send out large healthy swarms of little black native bees from their undisturbed strongholds. Someone else may point out that a wild colony may have collapsed a few times, been reoccupied several times over many years, and may be living with a disease. Another may highlight the fact that they may have been keeping at bay, or living with, many of the pests and diseases that conventional beekeepers work so hard to eradicate. Whatever is pointed out, the provenance of swarms is most important. Needless to say, the most assured quality of healthy swarms is from your own stock, assuming your own stock is healthy. You may of course know of the "bee whisperers" amongst us, those who can lovingly turn around a dwindling or bad-tempered colony through their care and the spirit with which it is administered... enhanced by a welltended environment and the quality of forage. However, this may not be your calling, and those within your "honey bee horizon" may not appreciate you siting colonies of unknown origin nearby. In a nutshell, a swarm of certain and healthy provenance or a shook swarm from a good colony is a perfect way to stock a skep.

It would be polite to inform your local club and neighbouring bee keepers of your skep or skep apiary. They can be a fascinating addition to an apiary safari. I am assuming that most of the folk that read this article are experienced in and aware of the intricacies of keeping bees in moveable frame hives. If you are not, then it would certainly be wise to understand the way bees are predominantly kept at this present time and understand the varying crafts of your contemporaries. To visually and experientially learn from keeping one or two easily inspected colonies can only help to improve your understanding and appreciation of honey bees and their behaviour and improve your beekeeping. It will also be reassuring for a bee inspector if you keep one or two colonies on moveable frame hives in the same apiary, as a kind of control. There is no guarantee that they may contact a disease before a skep may, but the possibility of exposure to disease is greater. It may be the case that bee keepers are the cause of the spread of many pathogens through bad practice... but it is also possible that one little bee may one day alight herself upon a piece of toast within foraging distance that is spread with non EEC honey that may contain pathogens of a foul brood. Hence, it is a good idea not to site a skep or any other kind of fixed comb hive within foraging distance of a wholesale honey supplier.

Skep inspections

A simple and enlightening first step would be to observe the skep entrance. Whether you have a channel cut into the floor board for the bees to alight upon and crawl inwards underneath the skep, or a letterbox entrance somewhere further up, a great deal can be learnt watching and listening to the bees come and go. For example, if pollen is being brought home then it’s a sign that they have brood. If lots of pollen is coming in then one can discern that there is a lot of brood, or a well-mated queen beginning to lay. If there are yellow or brown spots of faeces then there is dysentery, and a possible nosema problem. If one hears piping or tooting, then swarms are preparing to fly. If a colony goes still and silent in good weather during a nectar flow, a prime swarm may be about to issue forth. The behaviour of bees and any debris at the entrance may also tell you of queenlessness, robbing, Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV), mouse activity or starvation and more. A gem of a work and the only one solely dedicated to this subject is "At the hive entrance: Observation handbook" by H. Storch. (European apiculture editions 1985). It can be read, printed or downloaded at: www.scribd. com/doc/88176574/At-the-Hive-Entrance

A second step you may like to employ is hefting the skep, keeping it on the stand and board so as not to break the propolis seal. This art will take some time to master, and for the wisdom of one's flesh and sinew to calibrate and assess the weight of the colony. The kinaesthetic and sensitive tactile qualities that will be fostered within you may bestow all sorts of blessings upon your life in this increasingly abstract and mechanised world.

I like to put open mesh floors into skep stands. A third step may be removing and inspecting a tray beneath a mesh floor. Upon this tray there'll be a wealth of information about what is happening inside. You will see where the bees are uncapping stores and brood, where they are building new comb, various pollen loads, varroa, evidence of hygienic behaviour (chewed varroa mites, white antenna or nymph parts) -note the sterling work of Ron Hoskins and the Swindon Honey bee Conservation Group www.swindonhoneybeeconservation.org.uk)evidence of dysentery and other conditions or diseases. Plus, you will be implementing a natural way of helping the colony resist varroa. A tray beneath a mesh floor can also lure the wax moth to lay eggs there instead of the colony above. If you don't like the idea of a mesh floor, the skep stand or floorboards can be changed for clean ones, and the debris on the old one can be examined.

Penultimately, if what you observe so far is cause for alarm, you may wish to upturn the skep and look for queen cells or evidence of swarming; for a healthy brood check one can part the combs and if a good amount of healthy sealed brood is present fears may be eased. As Frank Alston wrote, "a good slab of solidly sealed brood is a fair indication that all is well". You'll be able to count the number of plates of brood comb, assess honey stores and perhaps spot a queen.

The nature and frequency of exposed inspection of skeps is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the less you inspect the better. The bees are less disturbed and the pheromones at the heart of their world remain happy ones, propolis is not broken, their temperature is not lowered, comb is not broken, bees are not squashed or smoked, bees are not stressed or put at risk of disease entering their dark temple of sound and smell, taste and touch. On the other hand, you'll be less aware if a disease has entered their world.

Ultimately, in the worst case scenario, if a skep does need to be checked for foul brood, the combs can be cut out and inspected one by one as the cross sticks or "spleets" are slowly removed. A skep comb cutting knife that is usually used for harvesting is the right tool for the job. It consists of a blade that protrudes at a right angle from the end of a long handle. The combs can be carefully put back again if no sign of disease is present. The bees wouldn't thank you for it, and the bee inspector probably wouldn't either, but the job can be done.

Natural honeycomb can be transferred from one place to another with due care and attention. A few years back, a friend and I removed a colony from a roof that had been in there for a number of weeks. We simply took the combs out one by one from the closest end, inspected them and fastened them into an empty skep with cross sticks (cross sticks, also known as spleets, are pinned through the skep at right angles to the combs to brace them against falling out or falling against each other whilst upturning the skep). The straw skep had a flat top with a three inch feeding/expansion hole in the top. The colony was fed and built up well.

Apiary hygiene

Good apiary hygiene is of heightened importance in a skep apiary. To limit the spread of disease is paramount. As you most likely know, this can be done by preventing robbing and drifting, keeping the apiary clean and tidy, keeping any equipment clean and disinfected. Mice are a possible source of spreading disease. If a skep is well guarded from mice (a simple mouse guard can be pinned to the entrance) one may still build a nest on top of it in the winter months. It is good practice to check under hackles or skep shelters from time to time through the darker half of the year.

Harvesting Honey Today

Harvesting honey comes in various forms... assuming no-one is bent on reviving the practice of sulphuring or drowning the bees. The simplest way is to cut out some of the honeycomb from the outermost edges, sometimes referred to as "castrating" the comb. Ekes and Nadirs may be utilised in this method to increase the capacity of a colony one wishes to build up bigger if it hasn't sent out a prime swarm, and then harvest or castrate later in the season. Another successful method is to have a "brood" skep with a three inch circular hole in the top and consecutive "super" skeps above it. Driving or drumming the bees as mentioned in earlier articles is another method. In all these methods, it is easier to spill honey from honeycomb than it is using wired frames, so greater care must be taken. A large amount of wax is harvested, and ideally a colony ought not dwell on the same brood comb for more than two years without swarming. The bees can be driven into a new skep before midsummer, and they'll hopefully have the rest of the season to build up strong. Bees can be driven in the autumn and a new colony can be made up of any brood comb that has not yet emerged and some nurse bees. Honey comb can be consumed or packaged as cut comb, or run through straining bags into containers. The famous "honey-poke". The wax can then be washed and you are halfway to making mead.

I am still a learner myself, all the time learning, experimenting with the varying styles and sizes, systems and shelters. There are of course other intricacies and concerns depending on what systems of management a skeppist may explore and deploy. It is not just sweetness and light, there is equal venom and shadow, and all is of great value. Developing best practice is an ongoing process and at least if one aspires towards impeccability then you can feel twice as good about enjoying the blessings and benevolence of skep beekeeping. There are many advantages for the bees, much more than those I have highlighted, and the disadvantages are generally for the beekeeper, and perhaps they are blessings in disguise.

Hopefully, this article will have given you enough tools, references and inspiration to begin a careful procession along the path; for the majority, an insight into what some of the natural beekeepers up the road from you may be up to and why. For all of you, a window onto a small fragment of the rich history and heritage of honey.

Chris Park's website: www.acorneducation.com/homepage.html

This article is combined from four issues of BBKA News Issues between January 2009 and February 2012. This version has been downloaded from Dave Cushman's website www.dave-cushman.net

References

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upbONroWPic

2. Crane, E. (1983) The Archaeology of Beekeeping. London:Duckworth

3. Alston, Frank (1987) Skeps Their History Making and Use. Hebden Bridge:Northern Bee Books

4. Showler, K. (2011) Essays in Beekeeping History.

5. http://www.beedata.com/data2/skeps.html

6. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cotswoldbeeskeps/pageb.htm 7 http://www.martinatnewton.com/#!/beekeeping-pages,-skeps

It has been a long and interesting road to my keeping of bees in skeps: being introduced to bees at a smallholding in Sussex; experiences in permaculture and conservation projects, organic farms, off grid living, tree planting, working with environmental groups and training as a druid; being part of the team of volunteers living in a hill fort for the BBC’s 'Surviving the Iron Age' when honey was our only form of sweetening; settling on an organic farm 'Surviving the Iron Age’; inspired by Eva Crane's 'The Archaeology of Beekeeping’ I delved more into our beekeeping heritage, learning as much as I could to acquaint myself with the skills needed to keep bees in skeps and furthermore, eventually, to pass these skills on to other people. I was surprised how supported I have been by so many beekeepers along the way who recognised the importance of what I was doing, historically, environmentally, practically and socially. Notably, Ron Hoskins, Bill Mundy, Karl Showler, Francis Capener, Will Messenger, Peter Tomkins, Roger Patterson, Norman Carreck and Nicola Bradbear. Through researching and developing skep beekeeping, and working with and learning from the charity Bees for Development, and studying the work of eminent bee scientist Tom Seeley, I am firmly reassured that bee skeps, and fixed comb beekeeping in general, has a valid place at the beekeeping round table. In fact it’s probably the oldest and most sustainable seat at the table! Most bees in the world are kept on fixed comb, in some kind of natural hand crafted vessel, and the aforementioned authorities are confident that these bees, if treatment-free and allowed to swarm, are the healthiest bees in the world.