Starting a new thread here to chart my skep journey.
Booked to attend Chris Park's Skep Beekeeping course run through Bees for Development on 30th July: https://www.beesfordevelopment.org/bee-involved/courses/
I have already purchased a skep from a skep maker on etsy rather than these cheap rubbish ones you see online. It's a thing of beauty. It has bamboo skewers through it. I also hand-cloamed it in cow poo. Another member privately messaged me to say that I ought check with the farmer that the cows hadn't recently been wormed as that would affect the biome. I did and it's fine. I'm genuinely in awe of the cloam. I accidentally sprayed the skep with my hose when watering the garden (yes, in April) and the water just trickled off and didn't even get wet!
I constructed an eco box (a la Barefoot Beekeepr Phil Chandler) that I filled with detritus from the local forest floor. I understand that keeping the contents moist is a problem yet to be solved. I also understand from what I've listened to that some bees are pissed off about the contents and spend time removing every morsel so I hope they're not annoyed about that.
The skep and eco box is housed in a specially built wooden housing that has a slanted roof and polycarbonate shielding to keep rain off. It's placed in a field beside local woodland, faces a south-easterly direction and is well-sheltered from prevailing wind by hedging. The housing unit is raised probably 3 feet off the ground (again, based on the recommendations I read) and fully insulated with circa 100mm insulation on all sides (except the entrance obviously). It's painted and has bee stencils on the outside.
It's my first foray in to skeps and if nothing else, it's a thing of beauty that I like the look of. I'm not taking honey. There is a gap at the top of the skep for a 'skep super' to go on if I so wanted. At this stage I need to learn and understand more about that from Chris.
I have another hive that I will share more about later.
I'm also very likely to be purchasing a top bar hive in the next week or two for a more 'conventional' approach.
If you want to know more about skep beekeeping then please join me on Chris' course (hopefully he'll bring MEAD!!) I can't tell you anymore than I currently know. I read the book 'What Bees Want' and found it very interesting. That's what initially piqued my interest. I've also watched the YouTube videos about skep beekeeping so no need to share. I'm not going to debate this topic - this is simply a placeholder for talking about skeps. I'm fully aware I've a lot to learn on this process and I don't want a repeat of the other thread here. Thanks very much!
Emma
N.B. It's fine if you want to comment on this thread. Good faith input only, please.
