Period Beehives: Wicker Skeps

A skep is an inverted basket made of wicker or coiled straw used in beekeeping for housing bees. The skep is over two thousand years old and straw hives are still used today in parts of Europe today. 

There are many examples of skeps in period illustrations and woodcuts. The word skep is derived from the word skeppa. It is Norse for a container and measurement for grain. It was not until the sixteenth century that this term was used with regards to beekeeping. Before that, the word “hive” was used.

The earliest known remains of a wicker skep were from 1-200AD. The example came from a peat bog near Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony. Wicker and coiled straw basket techniques were known since Antiquity and could have been used as skeps then.

Wicker skeps, also referred to as an alveary, were woven on a whorl of thin branches of a spruce or fir tree. Dictionary.com defines a whorl as “a circular arrangement of like parts, such as leaves or flowers around a point on an axis.” The branches formed the main stakes. Other stakes were added for support as the diameter increased. Wicker skep size and shape is determined by the size and shape of the whorl used.

Wicker hives were daubed with cloam or cloom. Cloaming increases the weather resisting abilities of the hive. There are various recipes for cloam, but the main ingredients are sand, ashes, dung and lime. Straw skeps last longer than wicker. The cloam used to protect the hive adheres better to the straw. This led to straw hives replacing wicker hives in later years because of its ability to resist weather better.

Medieval Pic: Hive picture from Northern Italy

Detail of a miniature of beehives with bees. Northern Italy. (Lombardy)

From the British Library

August Quote - Driving of the Bees: Charles Butler, 1609

Driving the bees is part of the medieval process of harvesting honey. Skeps do not have frames that allow for easy inspection of the hive and harvesting the honey. Charles Butler recommends driving the bees rather than smoking them out with a sulfur fire.The smoke from the sulfur fire killed the bees and left a residue on the wax and in the honey.

Below is a quote from Charles Butler's "The Feminine Monarchie: Or a Treatis Concerning Bees and the Due Ordering of Them" published in 1609. He discusses how to drive the bees in order to harvest the honey.

“Around midsummer, early in the morning, invert the skep to be driven. Cover the mouth of the full skep with an empty one. Wrap the join with a cloth to seal the opening. Clap rhythmically on the sides of the full hive. The bees will walk to the other hive. After most of the bees have walked to the empty hive, place it where the first hive was. Bees that are coming back from flight will go in there.”  - Charles Butler

Instructions for Making Your Own Skep

1)      Introduction

Skep making is much like basket making, except the top is the bottom! Getting started is the toughest part.

2)      Tools

a)      Girth of plastic

b)      Awl of metal and wood

c)      Water and a tub

3)      Materials

a)      Straw, hand-cut, un-baled, 2-3 feet long. Foxtail is a good option.

b)      ¼ inch caning; split into 1/8 inch, in approximately six foot sections.

4)      Process

a)      Prepare the straw by cutting off the head and removing any parts that stick out and are not smooth on the straw, much like on an ear of corn.

b)      Soak your straw in the tub.

c)      Soak caning in the tub.

d)     Load your girth with damp straw.

e)      Make the straw ends even by pulling on the straw.

f)       Take a long length of 1/8” cane and wrap the ends tightly for about 1-2”.

g)      Bend the wrapped end so it touches back on the section before itself.

h)      Move the girth back so the there is room to work. Continue to move the girth as needed throughout the process. Continue to feed your girth as it gets less full.

i)        Begin wrapping the cane around the straw in front of the girth that is not wrapped at about 1-2” intervals.

j)        Begin to make a disk repeating step “i” until you have the size disk you want. This is the top of the skep and determines how big your skep will be.

k)      Begin to bring in the coils to form the walls, gradually making the walls wider and wider.

l)        Follow this process until straw is gone or you have the size you want.

m)    At the bottom of the skep on the last ring, you will make the flight hole. The flight hole is how the bees enter and exit the hive.

i)        On the final coil before the end of the round, stitch through the middle of the ring for about 3”. Make the stitches closer than on previous sections so that they are touching.
ii)      Continue stitching as normal for the rest of the coil.

iii)    Cut out the unstitched portion of the coil.

n)      Finishing the skep

i)        When you have reached the depth of the skep you want, stop adding straw to the girth.

ii)      Continue stitching until the straw lays flat on the rim.

iii)    Wrap the end closely and secure the end of the cane in the round above.

Sources for Materials

Straw: Start calling your local farmers in July or find tall grasses. Harvest is usually around August 1. Ask if you can come out to their farm and hand-cut it yourself. You will need a sickle, a heavy pair of shears, or hedge clippers to cut down the straw. Gloves are also recommended.

Caning: Caning can be obtained from any basket-making supply house. This is where I got mine:

www.basketmakerscatalog.com

Resources

1)      Alston, Frank. Skeps: Their History, Making and Use. 1987.

2)      Conrad, Ross; Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture, 2007

3)      Crane, Eva; The Complete History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting, 1999

4)      Brekelmans, Toon; Skep-Making, 2005

5)      Butler, Charles; The Feminine Monarchie or A Treaties Concerning Bees and the Due Ordering of Them, 1609 (This book has only chapter numbers and no page numbers)

6)      Dictionary.com; accessed on 11/5/08

7)      Fraser, H. Malcolm; History of Beekeeping in Britain, 1958.

8)      Reddy, Mike; “Mike Reddy’s Skep FAQ”, found at http://homepage.mac.com/mreddygbr/skepFAQ/, accessed on 12/30/08

Skep Beehives (Part 8 of 8): Harvesting

This is the eighth and final part in a series of short articles on skeps in the Medieval through Renaissance periods.

The beekeeper finished the summer with many more hives than he started with. He only over-wintered stock hives with all of their honey for use in the spring. All of the honey was harvested from the other hives. The remaining hives, about 50-80%, were left to die. In 1609, Charles Butler recommended to harvest the heaviest and the lightest hives (Crane, 1999 p240). He recommended harvesting the heaviest hives because they yield the most honey and the lightest because the bees would starve to death anyways. This would leave the medium weight hives for the spring. 

The bees were killed or driven from the hives for harvest. They were killed by sulfur fumes. This was done by placing the hive over a pit of burning sulfur. It was also done by placing burning paper impregnated with sulfur into the hive. The bees were also killed by drowning. The hive was placed in a sack and put in hot water. Charles Butler didn’t agree with drowning the bees and writes it “hurteth the Honie, doth the Hive no good” (Butler, Ch 10).

More detailed instructions were given by Butler.

“Around midsummer, early in the morning, invert the skep to be driven. Cover the mouth of the full skep with an empty one. Wrap the join with a cloth to seal the opening. Clap rhythmically on the sides of the full hive. The bees will walk to the other hive. After most of the bees have walked to the empty hive, place it where the first hive was. Bees that are coming back from flight will go in there.”

Driving out the bees could be done when there were sufficient late honey flows. At or near midsummer, the bees were driven out of an upturned hive into an empty one. In 1580, Thomas Tusser writes “At midsummer drive them, And save them alive” (Crane 1999, p240).

The hope of driving the bees was they would have time to build new comb and store more honey before winter. Driven bees often did not prosper. Driven bees could be added to another colony to strengthen it. An alternative harvest method was to only harvest the bottoms of the combs. (Butler, Ch 10). The bees could then rebuild the combs.

Skep Beehives (Part 7 of 8): Swarms and Honey Flow

This is the seventh part in a series of short articles on skeps in the Medieval through Renaissance periods. 

Catching a Swarm

Skeps are managed by swarm beekeeping. Swarm beekeeping is the practice of making a hive just big enough for the bees to make a home. Swarming is when the queen and some of the worker bees leave the hive to find a new home. Swarms were encouraged by making the skep smaller than the needed space for a colony during peak honey flow. The recommended size ranged from nine to thirty-six liters and averaged about 20 liters (Butler, Ch. 5).

The colony will swarm when it becomes too big for the skep. The beekeeper then collects the swarm and installs it into a new hive. “The swarming months are two, Gemini and Cancer: one month before the longest day and another after.” (Butler, Ch. 5). This type of beekeeping was done in north-west Europe, as far south as the Pyrenees and Alps-Maritime of France where honey flows are in mid to late summer (Crane, p239).

Honey flows are the times of the year when nectar is plentiful. Bees produce and store a great deal of honey. Swarm beekeeping takes advantage of this with the creation of new hives in late spring and early summer. Honey is produced in these hives from the later blooming flowers. 

Skep Beehives (Part 6 of 8): Tanging

This is the sixth part in a series of short articles on skeps in the Medieval through Renaissance periods.

Tanging the Bees

Beekeepers watched for swarms. This would involve a lot of time in May and June. This implies that swarm beekeeping was for career beekeepers. The beekeeper would tang the swarm to get the bees to move from one hive to another. (Crane,1999 p333) Tanging is striking two metal objects together to make a loud noise. It was believed this would cause the bees to go into the new hive. The swarm would develop into a new colony, store honey, and may even swarm again.

Skep Beehives (Part 5 of 8): Hive Maintenance

This is the fifth part in a series of short articles on skeps in the Medieval through Renaissance periods.

Hives with Hackles

It was necessary to regulate the temperature and moisture in a hive. It is essential to keep the hive dry. Skeps were placed on wooden platforms to keep out pests and moisture (Butler, Ch. 2).

The hackle or coppet provided more shelter for the skep hive. (Butler, Ch. 3) The hackle is made from rushes, reeds, or long straw that was tied together to form a tent like hat for the skep (Alston, 30). To make a hackle, tie straw together at the neck and place it over the skep. A gart was then placed around the hackle over the skep to keep it in place. A gart is a hoop of metal (Alston, 30).

Skep Beehives (Part 3 of 8): Wicker and Straw

This is the third part in a series of short articles on skeps in the Medieval through Renaissance periods.

Boy being stung by bees; Illustration in a Latin bestiary, England late 1100’s.

Wicker skeps were originally woven on a whorl of thin branches of a spruce or fir tree. According to Dictionary.com, a whorl is "a circular arrangement of like parts, such as leaves or flowers around a point on an axis." The branches formed the main stakes (Crane 1999, p241). Stakes were bent down during weaving and other stakes were added for support as the diameter increased. Wicker skep size and shape is determined by the size and shape of the whorl used.

Coiled straw skeps were made only where suitable materials were grown. These materials were reeds, grasses, or long-stemmed cereals. Long stems, such as bramble, were split with a tool called a cleave and used to join the coils. The tools used to make a coiled-straw skep are a girth and an awl (Crane 1999, p242).

Medieval Bee Picture #3

Woodcut by Johann Grüninger showing straw skeps in two simple bee shelters. 1502

Skep Beehives (Part 2 of 8): History of the Skep

This is the second part in a series of short articles on skeps in the Medieval through Renaissance periods.

The earliest known remains of a wicker skep were from 1-200AD. The example came from a peat bog near Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony. (Crane 1999, p251) Wicker and coiled straw basket techniques were known since Antiquity and could have been used as skeps then. The Germanic tribes west of the Elbe were the first to use the straw skep even before the Christian era (Fraser 1958, p11). The Germanic tribes brought the skep west towards the French Channel and north-west into Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. The Anglo-Saxons brought the skep into Britain (Fraser 1958, p12).

Straw skeps last longer than wicker because the dung and clay mixture used to protect the hive adhered better to straw rather than wicker (Butler, Ch 3). This is called cloaming or clooming (Alston, p11). Straw replaced wicker as a common material around 500 AD when the straw skep was introduced to Britain (Alston 1987, p12). Skeps were not common outside of Europe where differing climates would affect the types of hives used. There were no significant changes to the way beekeepers used skeps until post-1600's.

Skep Beehives (Part 1 of 8): Introduction

This is the first part in a series of short articles on skeps in the Medieval through Renaissance periods.

A miniature recreation I did

The skep is the universal symbol of bees, beekeeping, and honey. A skep is an inverted basket made of wicker or coiled straw used in period beekeeping for housing bees. The skep is over two thousand years old and is still used today in parts of Europe. There are many examples of skeps in period illustrations.

This is a miniature example of a straw skep I made. It is roughly 8" tall and 10" wide. Full-sized skeps would be approximately 18" tall and 24" wide. The model is too small to add the entrance or flight hole, though not all straw beehives had an entrance door. The beehive could be place on a wooden stand with a carved channel on it to allow bees to get in an out. The channel would be carved the length of the board to allow for better air circulation and to serve as a gutter so rain would not build up in the hive.

Medieval Bee Yard Project

Medieval Bee Yard: Take 2... I won't be able to keep the bees in skeps because it is illegal. The combs need to be on moveable bars or frames to facilitate pest and disease management. I still want to make a couple of full-size skeps and build the associated shelter for them.

Instead, I'm going to build medieval Italian box hives. They are very similar to the Top Bar Hive I had before. I have very little documentation, so this will be a bit of a challenge. Bonus to the Italian hives over the skeps.... more honey!

A friend has been working on a Medieval garden in her yard. She is clearing space for me to build my bee shelter to place the skeps in. This may be a long-term project that will be set-up next Spring. I need to gather the materials to build the skeps as well as the shelter.

I'm going to use reclaimed pallets for the shelter. There's a paint company around the corner that always has free pallets available. I need to look through my pictures for the shelters and draw up plans. I'd like to use hand-forged nails and I think I have a local source for those.

I'd like to be able to make at least two skeps 100% using period tools and techniques. This will include making a cleave to strip bramble for the binder, neither of which I have done before. I have a horn girth and a turkey-bone awl. I'd like to make an awl from a goose or other animal that would have been available in period. I need to collect the straw as well. A friend has offered me all the weeds I want from her backyard in the country.

Modern Bee Pic #2

Filing this under Modern Bee Pics as it is a reproduction I made. It's about 1/5 the size of full-sized skep.

Skeps are the beehives most commonly associated with medieval and Renaissance beekeeping. A skep is an inverted basket made of woven wicker or coiled straw used in beekeeping for housing bees. The skep is over two thousand years old and is still used today in parts of Europe.

Coiled straw skeps were made only where suitable materials were grown. These materials were reeds, grasses, or long-stemmed cereals. Tools used to make a coiled-straw skep are a girth and an awl. A girth, made of leather or cow horn, kept the coils a consistent thickness. A bone or metal awl was used to make holes in the straw to insert the binding cane. Long stems, such as blackberry, were split and used to join the coils.

Long, thin sticks were often placed across the interior to help prevent comb breakage and anchor combs to the hive. Coiled straw skeps can have flat or domed tops and can vary greatly in size and shape. The flight hole could be placed anywhere on the coiled skep. The flight hole is the hole or holes from which the bees come and go from the hive.

Miniature example of a skep I created in 2009

Skep Project To-Do List:

• Collect straw
• Prepare straw: Remove seed heads, leaves, etc
• Find period basket-making documentation
• Collect blackberry stems to make bramble binding
• Make a cleave to prepare brambles
• Prepare brambles
• Make a bone awl from a goose leg
• Build a period shelter
• Set up shelter
• Make two skeps
• Set up skeps
• Learn how to collect bees in a skep
• Purchase two queens
• Collect bees
• Install bees in hive
• Document and take pictures of the entire process!