Transferring from National to Skep

[Martinreed]

I have just acquired a skep and intend using it although probably not until next Spring.
I am also about to take on a couple of new National colonies and am wondering if I could somehow transfer one of the colonies into the skep or just use it for a swarm next year.
If I transfer it, would I just transfer all the bees and let them get on with it or cut out the comb from the frames and somehow rafia it into the skep.
Advice would be welcome.

 

[oliver90owner]

Forget it is my advice. There are uses for skeps and they are better used for other uses.

Think just a tad - how will the bee inspector check out your skep when there is a foulbrood outbreak anywhere near your apiary?

 

[itma]

Martin, you should surely know that this is totally the wrong time of year to be choosing to transfer bees onto a different hive type.

This is an unusual time of the year to be "taking on" new colonies, after varroa treatment and winter provisioning should have been done.

I've never seen a skep that would hold 40lb/20kg of stores for overwintering. Which reminds me that the traditional way of using a skep was to kill the colony at the end of the season to be able to steal their honey. And then catch another wild swarm next year …

 

[Swarm]

Take a look at the youtube videos of seventies skep keeping, it's very interesting.

 

[Tom Bick]

Always thought it would be nice to have a colony in a skep for a season or two. Have always fancied one of those carved log hives to.

 

[sharonh]

Forget it is my advice. There are uses for skeps and they are better used for other uses.

Think just a tad - how will the bee inspector check out your skep when there is a foulbrood outbreak anywhere near your apiary?

Very sensible advice & would agree.

 

[BeeJayBee]

It's a nice idea, but it's the wrong time of year to expect bees to build comb. You could try in the spring, if you really want to raise a colony in a skep - with caveats re disease inspections!

 

[MuswellMetro]

It's a nice idea, but it's the wrong time of year to expect bees to build comb. You could try in the spring, if you really want to raise a colony in a skep - with caveats re disease inspections!

I'll pm him my mobile, as i am often in the area and he will need to tell his neighbours who to phone to collect the swarms from his skep

You will need a very frugal AMM British Brown Bee to contain them in a skep, with say a Carnolian strain they may either abscond or issue three or four swarms per year becasue your options for swarm control or prevention as very very limited

 

[Dared]

Don't think using a skep other than for collecting swarms is the way forward but if you are interested in seeing how to do it then go to Utube and type in the search “iwf.de” and look for Heathland Beekeeping - 1 - Spring Work in a Heather Skep Apiary

Love the swarm collection

 

[psafloyd]

I have just acquired a skep and intend using it although probably not until next Spring.
I am also about to take on a couple of new National colonies and am wondering if I could somehow transfer one of the colonies into the skep or just use it for a swarm next year.
If I transfer it, would I just transfer all the bees and let them get on with it or cut out the comb from the frames and somehow rafia it into the skep.
Advice would be welcome.

Forget it. Save the skep for swarms, but it won't replace your national. Not unless you intend to destroy your bees each year, except for the 'stock' colonies you keep for the following year.

 

[pargyle]

I have just acquired a skep and intend using it although probably not until next Spring.
I am also about to take on a couple of new National colonies and am wondering if I could somehow transfer one of the colonies into the skep or just use it for a swarm next year.
If I transfer it, would I just transfer all the bees and let them get on with it or cut out the comb from the frames and somehow rafia it into the skep.
Advice would be welcome.

The advice, generally, is you are going down a blind avenue trying to use a skip as a modern hive .. for all the reasons people have given you are going to face problems with it. 150+ years ago skeps were considered not ideal for beekeeping and this was the main reason that so many beekeepers went to some many extraordinary lengths to create the moveable frame hive which has now evolved into the design, largely, perfected by Langstroth.

As an exercise in ancient beekeeping I don't think we have much to learn from keeping bees in a skep ... if it's the desire to use something you have been given, turn it upside down and use it as a waste paper basket !

However, if you are desperate to use it for reasons that even I (as an off the wall beekeeper !) can't fathom and you have some rudimentary DIY skills you might consider creating something like this ....

http://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/sun-hive-biodynamic-initiative-0

Bees, apparently, do very well in them and it has the advantages (few that they are) of a skep but with some ability to see what is going on and collect honey.

I'll get my coat and tin hat now ....

 

[MuswellMetro]

The advice, generally, is you are going down a blind avenue trying to use a skip as a modern hive .. ....

and very expensive at £45 per cubic yard perday

sorry couldn't help it, says the man who makes more spelling typos than most

 

[Swarm]

Bees in a skip? Now that sounds like fun.

 

[Tom Bick]

If there is a will there is a way and no reason why any beekeeper who wants to keep bees in skeps could not do so with perhaps not the same results as framed hives but successfully all the same and address most of the concerns mentioned in previous posts.

 

[pargyle]

and very expensive at £45 per cubic yard perday

sorry couldn't help it, says the man who makes more spelling typos than most

Freudian slip methinks !!

 

[sunhivebee]

I have just acquired a skep and intend using it although probably not until next Spring.
I am also about to take on a couple of new National colonies and am wondering if I could somehow transfer one of the colonies into the skep or just use it for a swarm next year.
If I transfer it, would I just transfer all the bees and let them get on with it or cut out the comb from the frames and somehow rafia it into the skep.
Advice would be welcome.

As others have noted, transferring bees from any container into any other at this time of year is out of the question.

But there is no reason for you to give up on the idea of offering a skep to one of your swarms next year. Just consider from the start how you are going to give them room to expand when they need it.

Depending on the circumference of your skep, have boxes of the appropriate size, fitted with topbars, ready to nadir (place under) your skep to enable the bees to extend their combs downwards as the season progresses.

This way of expanding downwards is, incidentally, what bees do when they are able to conduct their colony life in accordance with their nature. Some beekeepers like the idea of that.

A skilled person will have no problem inspecting the combs in a skep for brood disease. We know of several instances of skeps having been inspected by Fera inspectors quite recently.

And keep in mind, no-one has ever compelled anyone to treat their bees ruthlessly in order to get at their honey. Ruthlessness in bee "husbandry" is not connected with hive style.

In our experience, skep colonies do very well, overwinter well and maintain good health, which may have something to do with the fact that the rounded shape facilitates thermoregulation, apart from the factor mentioned above, i.e. that the nest is built as it would be in nature, the combs are drawn downwards.

The moveable frame hive is extremely convenient to beekeepers; it should not be forgotten that it also opened the floodgates to a host of new problems for the bees, least not all the tendency of their keepers to view the hive as an assembly of spare parts, with bits interchanged between colonies as and when the beekeeper sees fit, with all the risks associated with that.

You may wish to check Dr David Heaf's excellent site for more information about skep type conformations. He is the author of an equally commendable book "The Bee-friendly Beekeeper".

 

[user 6228]

...which may have something to do with the fact that the rounded shape facilitates thermoregulation, apart from the factor mentioned above, i.e. that the nest is built as it would be in nature, the combs are drawn downwards.

....

Not sure what you mean by that ...

but using thermal engineering and experimental measurements :

Geometry effects heat flow , but the difference between rectangular and cylindrical cross sections are marginal compared to effective air sealing of the top of the nest.
So no top vents for and a daub cover coat is necessary.
A well tapered top allows for better matching of bee colony to nest and so improve heat loss per bee.

 

[mbc]

Glanced through a small holders magazine while waiting in the queue t'other day and saw advice to build an elaborate bee bole to house a step.
Blinking ippies nd their daft romantic notions should stop encouraging the wasting of nature's providence imho

 

[Swarm]

All that work just to lay a step?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

to build an elaborate bee bole to house a step

In my neck of the woods they call them porches