What is a skep?
Short answerTrue
A dome-shaped hive of coiled straw bound with split bramble, the standard European hive for centuries. It is the shape everybody pictures when they hear the word beehive, and it has not been a working production hive for over a hundred years.
How one is made and worked
Long straw is bundled and coiled from the crown downwards, each coil stitched to the one above with split bramble or cane. It sits on a stand or in a wall recess, usually under a cover against rain. Volume is added with a plain ring of straw underneath or a small super on top.
The comb is attached to the inside, so nothing can be lifted out. A skep beekeeper judges a colony by its weight, its sound and the traffic at the entrance, which is a real skill and one that modern beekeeping has largely lost.
Why they went
There is a second reason, which is about straw rather than bees. Skeps need long-stemmed straw from older cereal varieties threshed by hand, and short-strawed modern wheat harvested by combine does not provide it. Modern skep makers grow straw specifically for the purpose.
Sources
- Bees and Beekeeping: Science, Practice and World Resources — Heinemann Newnes (1990) · Monograph
- The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting — Routledge (1999) · Historical text
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