Skep Making: BU04714



Title page from the treatise on bees, 1827
NYCRO1083

Before the invention of the modern moveable frame beehive in 1851, bees were kept in a variety of hives - earthenware pots, hollow logs and wooden boxes.

In Britain, the most commonly used was known as a ’skep’. These were straw basket structures that would be sheltered from the elements in bee holes or boles in walls.

Bee keeping in skeps is an inefficient process as harvesting the honey and wax involves destroying the colony. This method of bee keeping gradually died out after the introduction of the modern beehive, as this method did not necessitate killing a single bee to harvest the wax and honey. However, as our main picture shows, skeps persisted in North Yorkshire into the 1950’s.

 

Preface from the treatise on bees, 1827
NYCRO1084