Mike Reddy's Skep FAQMike Reddy's Skep FAQThis is a stub page. Text, sounds, video and graphics will be included eventually! Contents of this page are experimental at present. Sorry! A revised version is under development here, and I received a lovely letter in my capacity of Master Will Harper, Beekeeper to Kentwell Hall in Suffolk (one of my reenactments roles) regarding a swarm of bees found by a visitor to the site during one Summer. The text is here. Finally, there is a web page containing many large graphics that have yet to be encorporated into the text. Note: This page has many large graphics and will take ages to download; you have been warned. I don't care
Beekeeping has always been an integral part of the British Economy. Although we now see honey as a rather expensive sweetener, compared with sugar - At £2 a 1 lb jar it loses hands down to a 25 pence bag of sugar - The main product of Mediaeval and Tudor apiarists was the wax, used by chandlers to make candles for the Church until the Reformation in 1536 when King Henry the 8th in his obsession to gain a male heir all but destroyed the market. Honey was still the reserve of the richer families and was used in baking, medicines, polish and the manufacture of Mead (the oldest alcoholic drink!).
In fact, mead was the weakest of a number of honey derived beverages, collectively known as Meth (not Meths!) or Hydromel. The strongest was Methaeglen, a one time favourite of Queen Elizabeth the 1st. Such was the importance of the drink to the Royal Court that Welsh mead makers were immune from all prosecution while making it! They could, literally, get away with murder!
The main difference between beekeeping is that now we have techniques for separating the honey from the brood - a legal requirement for selling in fact - with the movable comb hive. Although, tree stumps and clay pots have been used around the World, in Western Europe, the most popular hive was a conical basket called a skep - derived from the Anglo Saxon "Skeppa" which means basket - made of woven wicker baskets (with a coating of cloome or daub), or long straw coiled and stitched with blackberry briar. The straw skep is said to have started with tribes west of the Elbe in Germany [Crane]. The earliest remains may have come from possibly a twelfth century skep found in 1980 during an excavation at Coppergate, York. [Crane].
Skeps need not be made with long wheat straw. Reeds and sedges could also be used, presumably dependent upon locally available materials. Skeps have been known to last 150 years. Skeps were usually set upon tables to protect them from damp and scavengers. The platforms would be made of wood, as stone would be likely to chill the bees.
An extension to the front would provide an increased landing area, with a groove to allow access to the hive. Alternatively, bees could gain entry if the surface was uneven, through a hole cut in the side or the base of the skep, or by raising the side of the skep with sticks (often used in Summer to facilitate many bees coming and going).
Protection from the elements would be by a 'hackle' or reed wigwam affair.
For a typical skep, 6-8 combs would hang vertically, being attached to the top and sides. This makes it almost impossible to examine the brood or remove the honey without destroying the comb. Skeps were usually measured in pecks, a measure used for stored grain and perhaps a throwback to the original use for skeps. Butler mentions one and two peck versions - 14 by 15 inches and ?? by 15 inch respectively - The small size was probably because the cramped space would encourage swarming, a vital process for replacing the harvested skeps.
'Hefting' or lifting the skeps was an acquired skill for judging the weight of honey so that the beekeeper could decide which to destroy. The medium weights would be left to swarm the following year, while the lightest and heaviest would usually be taken; the lightest would not survive the Winter without feeding, the heaviest as the brood would possibly be too large for the stored honey, or would eat the profits!
The dastardly deed itself would have been performed in one of two ways: The first was simply to immerse the skep in water, though impure water would almost certainly taint the honey. The second involved using the smoke from a sulphur fire to asphyxiate the bees. The technique required digging a hole slightly smaller in diameter than the base of the skeps. A fire would be built up in the hole, then sulphur added just before the skeps would be placed on top. After a short time, the dead bees could be shaken out, however leaving the skep too long might melt the comb or flavour the honey.
Clearly, this approach was wasteful for both bees and drawn comb, as well as being quite upsetting for us to consider, spoilt as we are with our modern hives. A precursor of the Super was a 'cap', a skep placed on top to allow honey to be harvested without destroying the brood comb. Alternatively, an 'eke' (a ring of four coils of straw) or a 'nadir' (a skep with a hole in the roof) could be placed below to increase the size of the hive.
Another technique was to drive the bees, but this could only be profitably done in Autumn because of the reduced brood comb. Furthermore, the bees would need to be joined to an existing colony as they would not survive otherwise. It is interesting to note that all the expert authorities of the time disapproved of this approach.
Comb was extracted in three parts:
Interestingly, no mention of pollen is made in the distinctions, though it was understood that bees collected and stored it.
The honey was extracted through a cloth bag. The first or 'run' honey was the best quality, the second came from wringing the cloth, while the meth was obtained by washing th ecloth in warm water. The latter was used for the mead.
£6-9 for a barrel of best honey
£5 for a barrel of Heath honey
It was generally understood that raw honey was not so fit as that heated for half an hour with a little water to aid removal of impurities.
"The better the wheat and the wool, the better the honey" - Anon
"Heaven flows with milk and honey" - Exodus 3, 8-13
Reckoning for good honey: Oil is 9/10ths the weight of wine, honey is 3/2ths the weight of wine.
Alchemically, honey is hot and dry, easily absorbed, acting as a cleanser (both internally and externally). Honey can be used to heal in the following ways:
opening obstructions; clearing humours and flegma from chest and head; loosening the belly ad purging foulness; helping urine; improving appetite; nourishing and purifying the blood; stirring up heat in young and old; prolonging life; preserving things. It is often used by physicks to add to medicine and for embalming. It can improve maladies; work against serpent and dog bites, as well as poison; guards against falling sickness. Honey is most fit for old men, all women and children who are generally rheumatic, flegmatic ad cold of humour. Honey is not so well for young and hot (!) men, unless part of a fast.
Smoking is not a recent phenomenon, though bellows smokers are only a hundred and fifty years old or so. Virgil in Roman times stated:
"With sprinkled water first the city choke, And then pursue the citizens with smoke."
Primitive smokers, or chafing dishes date from Roman times, and so are well within the remit of Tudor beekeepers, being mentioned in Southerne and Butler in some detail. Before that time, it was likely that burning branches would have been used as they are today in some African nations. Interestingly, the pottery smokers built at Kentwell by the resident potters was seen by a volunteer who has worked in Africa and inspired her to make one to show when she returns to the continent as a possible alternative to wielding burning wood. Nice to know that the 'cutting edge of Tudor times' still has its uses.
B & K Books of Hay-on-Wye,
Riverside, Newport Street,
Hay-on-Wye, via Hereford.
HR3 5BG
TEL: 01497 820 386
FAX: 01497 821 004
Many of these are available from IBRA's extensive library.
Butler, Charles "The feminine monarchy, or The historie of bees", 1609, A facimile is available from Northern Bee Books.THE book of Tudor beekeeping. The copy I have has been read and re-read.
Crane, Eva "The archaeology of beekeeping", 198?, IBRA. An excellent source on the history of beekeeping throughout the ages.
IBRA, "British bee books: A bibleography 1500-1976" 1979, IBRA. Again, a facinating list of references from the year dot. Numerous plates from various publications
Southerne, Edmund "A treatise concerning the right use and ordering of bees", 1593, A facsimile is available from IBRA. The first original book in English entirely on beekeeping. *** Scan in the cover ***
Thorn, Thorskegga "History and method of beekeeping up to 1900" 1995? Darr Publications. I have not seen this book, but it was due out in December 1995