The bees were happy foraging somewhere away from the apiary which meant we could all sit outside in the dappled shade and learn about the ancient craft of Skep beekeeping from Chris Park of Acorn Education. Chris brought a selection of British and European skeps to illustrate the skills we needed to develop to make our very own skep...
The kit needed to make a skep is really pretty simple, just some long straw and willow lappings to bind it together....
Traditionally the "feeder" for the straw is a piece of old cow horn, but these days a piece of 2" pipe will also work...
The "Fip" or needle to "sew" it together used to be made of bone... but a piece of split garden cane of a modern metal spike also works...
As with many crafts, its the getting started well that is essential to the success of the finished project. Watching an expert makes it look easy...
Then it was our turn...
You could hear the concentration....
But as we fed more straw into the feeders our skeps gradually grew bigger and bigger...
And before we knew it, it was time to pause for lunch...
So we downed tools and tucked into a great spread...
Fully refreshed it was back to the job in hand, and the skeps grew well as the sunshine continued to smile on us...
We all had a terrific afternoon and have come home with enough kit to finish our skeps....
though I'm not sure how many of us will make one strong enough to hold or outlive the beekeeper that uses it!
