# Skep beekeeping in Germany



## andreag421 (Oct 20, 2013)

great find!


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Actually that family kept 3,000 skeps during summer.

Right where Georg Klindworth has had his skep apiary with up to 3,000 skep hives in summer (nowadays the young Klindworth doesn't run any hives anymore), I visited a friend in the Luneburg heathland who runs skeps in the heath.

I took some pictures of him demonstrating skep beekeeping. 

First row of pictures: the applying of cow dung to create a nice and snug cover for the skep. 


Provide a convenient height of the work bench. 









Thinned or worn out patches get refilled with straw, chapped seams get re-sewn or stapled with a wooden staple (sort of).









The most important ingredient is cow dung. Cow dung. It should be 

absolutely fresh - because if there a small dandruffs of dried patches it'll disturb the applying of the dung onto the skep. 
Best is fresh cow dung in Spring, because no hard fibres means a smooth skep cover that doesn't come off (cracking) when dried.
Only dung from cows off the yard, no shed. Needs to be grass fed, no soy, no silage.

The cow dung preserves the skep from moisture and keeps it nice and warm. Also there might be some lactic acid bacteria in the 

dung being beneficial to the bees' health?! Maybe. 









First skep is turned upside down and the bottom ring gets covered. With long strokes. 









The inside of the skep gets a cow dung cover up to the height of one or two rings.









Work thoroughly, dear "heatherman"!









The skep is turned back into original position and first the "eye" of the skep, the flight entrace, gets closed with dung. 









Apply the dung onto the cap next.









It has to be nice and smooth.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Then the sides get their dung. 









stroke by stroke...









...all the way round.









The seams shall stay visible. That prevents the dung cover from getting to thick (which would crack up the cover later when 

drying). Also the cow dung cover is more flexible when thin. 









Checking the work...









...fine tuning.









...and then the skep goes into the drying. The skeps stands on two sticks and is rotated continously, so the sun dries the 

skep's sides evenly. 









Pure cow dung is used - no clay. Although some regions do use clay and cow dung as a mixture, or even use clay only, the clay 

would make the cover more likely to draw water or to crack up. Especially when moving the skep it'll make the cover come loose.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Bees are feeded in skeps with the help of shallow wooden dishes (with floating swimming aids). The dish is put right under the 

skep and refilled daily. 









The wooden dish has small feet - so bees don't get crushed when placing the dish. And it prevents the bees from glueing down the 

dish to the floor. (Dark bees do use more propolis.) 









Alternatively there is an outside feeder that can be stuck to the outside of the skep. It has small nails. The entrance is from 

the back. 









The small case is fixed right under the flight entrance and refilled in the evening. The bees usually use up the food overnight. 









The feeder is refilled through a lid.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

In winter a small wooden board gets pinned to the entrance, so it prevents the sun from shining into the skep and baiting the 

bees out of the hive. Which will then freeze to death. It also prevents the wind a little from blowing into the entrance, and snow from blocking it.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

There are small mini version of skeps that are used as "nucs" or mating hives. Small casts get combined and surplus queens are hold in those mini skeps. 










Those mini skeps are called "Pöttscher". 









They are really mini tiny!









Pöttscher do get spales as well, since the bees are shaken out when moving into a full size skep or to catch the queen. (No other way than shaking them out to get hold of her Majesty.)


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

There is a first version of a box hive made from straw: the Kanitz hive. 

It has a brood and honey chamber. 









The Kanitz hive comes in two versions: one that is one piece - brood and honey box combined. (But divided.) And another version 

which has two "boxes" for honey and brood. So the honey box can be taken. 










On the left a one piece Kanitz skep, on the right a two-pieces Kanitz skep. 









In the honey chamber there are frames used. The frames have to be handmade and do differ in size, because the skep was made 

handmade, too, thus the measures are all different. No frames can be swapped around between two hives. 

The frames are open to the upside or closed as in a TBH. Both versions are known.









A queen excluder made from plastic (nowadays) or metall (in the past) between the compartments.









The brood chamber does not hold frames but spales only. 









The lid has a nice insulation made of straw. A pretty neat construction! 









The gaps between the boxes get filled with cow dung or - as a quick solution - a shirt in stripes wrapped around the gaps. See the skep on the lower right side.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

If the skep was made too small or if the bees need a little more space, the "Högel" is used. 









A högel is a single ring of straw - smeared with cow dung - that extends the height of the skep a little. 









Four metall cramps/staples are used so the straw ring doesn't come off when working the hive.









Another option for fixing the extension ring to the skep is to use four nails driven up from below right into skep's bottom ring. 









The ring gets some cow dung (of course...) to close down any gaps between skep and högel. The högel often cannot be seen anymore if you don't look very closely.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Once the cow dung is dried, the skep gets starter strips of wax. Small flecks of cow dung that spilled into the inside of the 

skep are loosened and shaken out of the skep. 









The skep then is put out into full sun, so the cap of the skep warms up a little. The wax starter strips get fixed very firmly 

to the ceiling of the skep. Make sure it is firm, because otherwise the bees come down by their own weight. With combs and all!









The skeps are covered in propolis on the inside. 









Spales are made from rose wood (or other wood that is available. One side gets a sharp point. 









The spales are driven diagonally through the skep, 90 degrees to the direction of the starter strips. The ends of the spales are 

not allowed to show on the outside and cut off. 









Spales are used in pairs on three levels. As an option the spales of the middle level are set up a diagonally to the other 

levels, which would increase the support of the combs. Especially important when moving the skeps.









In the pöttscher only one starter strip and fewer spales are used.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

For skeps there are special queen "cages" for keeping queens. Skep beekeepers use self-made cages for this. 

A roundish wood gets drilled and hollowed out. Split into four and all four parts get an indentation - which form the windows 

later. The wood gets re-assembled again and secured with wires. 

One side gets a plug, so there is an entrance to let the queen in. The side with the entrance also has some sort of a thorn. 

That thorn is used to fix the cage to the side of the skep. The other side has a knob, so the cage can be hold comfortly. 










The queen cage gets pinned to the side wall of the skep.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

A demonstration, how the honey harvest gets done. 

The skep gets inspected from below for being ripe for harvesting. Ripe means, that all/most brood has hatched and little brood left. Only bees and honey can be found in the hive. (September/October)

(The pictures shows a weaker colony that stayed home, while the stronger ones were moved into the heather. Only the strongest hives go into the heather, because the hives do wear out in the heath.) 









With a long knife or hive tool one can reach right into the combs, so you can push the combs apart and see what's going on inside. 









The skep to harvest is put right onto a smaller and flat skep, that will hold the bees shaken out of the skep. 









A rope goes round both skeps and rolled up in the hands, so both skeps are fixed to each other and can be lifted. Very carefull the skeps get shaken or thumped to the ground. This is an art. Too much thumping and bees, combs and all go down. Too little and the bees don't come out. In modern days car tires are used as a bumper to swing and shake out the bees. 









Checking (virtually) if the bees already got down.









The harvest per hive is relatively small: about 5-10 kg of honey. (Cast swarms and all do not gather that much in their first year.)

The bees get shaken into new skeps. Several hives are combined to make strong colonies. Bees get some feed and they build a new nest to overwinter on in September/October!


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

At Springtime when swarming the beekeeper is posting in front of the skep stand and awaits the swarms. (between 10 am and 4 pm.)

While waiting for swarms the beekeeper repairs skeps and materials, making new skeps. Once the bees start running in bunches or circles on the head of the skep, thus indicating a swarm to be thrown soon, the swarm catching bag gets fixed to the skep right under the entrance. Then it gets flipped over the entrances and fixed firmly against the skep. 

For the lower level hive some sort of a hay fork is used to lift up one end of the swarm bag. 









For the upper storey a lath with a nail at it's end is used to lift the swarm catching bag. 









Once the bees slow down on pouring out of the skep, the bag is removed, closed at the lower end and hang into the shade where it remains until the evening.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

The interesting detail on skep stands is, that the feet don't get sinked into the ground but instead sit on stones above the ground. The stands are made from frames with legs/feet as shown in the detail picture below. The frames connected with wooden boards the skeps stand on and the roof beams. (in the picture shown you see the skeps are sealed bee-tight with ropes at the bottom.









Not in the pictures: behind the skeps in the back, there is a laths on the floor board. It is used to stop the skeps from sliding backwards when tilting the skep to look beneath.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

The bees really do like skeps from what I observe.















































Greetings from Germany,

Bernhard


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## andreag421 (Oct 20, 2013)

Wow!!..that was quite the lesson!! Thanks Bernhard!!


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## TooFarGone (Aug 19, 2012)

Bernhard, what excellent pictures you have made! They really complement the 8 part Youtube videos on skep beekeeping. I really like the detail on the queen cages as this was not clear to me in the videos. The Kanetz skep is interesting too.

What are they using as floats in the feeding bowls? I have many drowned bees in my frame feeder, even with the wire "ladders" installed. Seems like the little floats that the skep beekeeper is using would work in a frame feeder too!

Thanks,
Tim


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>Actually that family kept 3,000 skeps during summer.<<

that sounds like too much work for one guy to manage. I watched how they catch swarms, how would one manage 3000 skeps swarming all within a few weeks of eachother? They would need crews of guys, and many many extra skeps to catch them in


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

@Tim: In my experience - I use frame feeders a lot - bees drown only in weaker hives. I do not have any floaters in the frame feeders, still no bees drown. In a weaker hive the bees get cold quickly. In the pictures the skeppist uses expanded clay/hydroton.

@Ian: Yes, a family business plus workers that helped. They winter 1,000 hives and make from one hive three hives through swarming, building them up for the late flow. (Heather flow.) That sort of management doesn't work in early flow locations. In Spring they fed the hives per apiary to induce swarming, so all hives swarmed within a few days. They also equalized the strength by swapping the skeps. A strong skep was placed on a stand where a weak skep was, and the other way round, so the weaker one received the flight bees of the stronger hive. 

In autumn all hives were shaken down and the skep harvested completely. The bees from three colonies were shook together and fed to draw new comb and store the winter feed. Some shook swarms were sold to beekeepers all over Germany. (Beekeepers in other regions strengthened their bees with those, for better wintering.)

Those old skeppists were really beekeeper masters and had a deep knowledge about bees. They were known to keep the most healthiest stock.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

how healthy is their stock now a days, with mites?


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Mites kill bees in skeps like in any other hive. But as sugar got cheap and highly available, skeppists used sugar for feeding the bees. 

In the old times, honey comb and bee bread were stomped and pounded into huge drums. The stuff fermented, I reckon it was a lactic acid fermentation. This was the stuff the beekeepers fed their bees in Spring for the buildup. 

Nowadays the wheel is re-invented: see SymBeeotic. 

http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?news_item=6093&id=24890






I think a good portion of the bees' health stems from that food, the continious renewal of the comb (lots of building) and swarming. One has to know, that the microbiom of the Bien consolidates each time the bees form a cluster. As in a winter cluster or swarm cluster. After clustering there are less microbe species within the Bien, but those that come through are beneficial to the bees and stabilized. 

There is no silver bullet to the mite problem, but I think, there is a lot we can learn from the old days.


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## max2 (Dec 24, 2009)

BernhardHeuvel said:


> Actually that family kept 3,000 skeps during summer.
> 
> Right where Georg Klindworth has had his skep apiary with up to 3,000 skep hives in summer (nowadays the young Klindworth doesn't run any hives anymore), I visited a friend in the Luneburg heathland who runs skeps in the heath.
> 
> ...


You have to wash your hands a few times after....been there!


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## max2 (Dec 24, 2009)

TooFarGone said:


> Bernhard, what excellent pictures you have made! They really complement the 8 part Youtube videos on skep beekeeping. I really like the detail on the queen cages as this was not clear to me in the videos. The Kanetz skep is interesting too.
> 
> What are they using as floats in the feeding bowls? I have many drowned bees in my frame feeder, even with the wire "ladders" installed. Seems like the little floats that the skep beekeeper is using would work in a frame feeder too!
> 
> ...


Yes, fantastic. So many skills


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

BernhardHeuvel said:


> Mites kill bees in skeps like in any other hive.


do the beekeepers treat their hives then? Oxalic acid would come to mind


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## Tele109 (Dec 4, 2011)

Fantastic post........


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

Ian, at last a use for all that Canadian beef cow dung?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Yikes! 
I wonder how the public would react to beekeepers covering their hives with cow dung.


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

They would be fine if it was organic.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I'm sure you have your toung in your cheek


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## 2ndCharter (Jan 22, 2009)

Bernhard, thank you, this was a great series of posts! Where is this apiary located? I lived in the Hunsruck for a couple of years.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

Luneburg!


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## azbees (Jul 23, 2011)

Great post! Thank you for sharing. I'm actually in Europe now and noticed some old skeps lying around so I was able to share this post as a way to explain alot more than I new about this method.


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

I visited a dark bee beekeeper and breeder in the far North of Germany. Kai-Michael Engfer (www.nordbiene.de). 

Dark bees working a hedgerow of privet (Ligustrum).













































Kai and me share a passion: planting trees. This tree was planted by Kai 20 years ago.









Dark bees in front of a five frame hive. Notice the roundish butt, which is a characteristic attribute of pure dark bees. 









Bees in front of a skep.









Poking my nose into the entrance.


















The apiary is near to the Northern coast of Germany.


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## Yvesrow1 (Jan 27, 2013)

BernhardHeuvel said:


> Actually that family kept 3,000 skeps during summer.
> 
> (nowadays the young Klindworth doesn't run any hives anymore)
> 
> Just curious, any ideas why he no longer keeps bees? I took particular interest & watched all the youtube films... It seemed to be their way of life?


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## MZUNGUKICHAA (Jan 24, 2021)

Ian said:


> found this skep beekeeping series on YouTube the other day.
> Its a gem. Not sure what the time frame is with this operation, but this guy looks after 700 skeps!
> Very interesting look at a beekeeping practice developed around not opening up the hive. I think there are 8 or so installments


Perhaps we should return to this simpler type of beekeeping, if the authorities would let us! It is similar to log hive or bark hive beekeeping so common in Africa, where a single man may own 500 hives , but occupancy rate may only be 60 percent.


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## MZUNGUKICHAA (Jan 24, 2021)

max2 said:


> You have to wash your hands a few times after....been there!


Bernhard, could one mix a little cement with the cow dung for the outer layer and thus make the hive rain proof?


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

Ian said:


> > >Actually that family kept 3,000 skeps during summer.<<
> 
> 
> that sounds like too much work for one guy to manage. I watched how they catch swarms, how would one manage 3000 skeps swarming all within a few weeks of eachother? They would need crews of guys, and many many extra skeps to catch them in


Think of how many cows would be need to keep up the supply of fresh cow pies!!!


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## Tigger19687 (Dec 27, 2014)

This thread is from 2014


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

Tigger19687 said:


> This thread is from 2014


It's the middle of the winter-we're bored, bee's around here are in a (hopefully) deep cluster, it's dark, 20 degrees, COVID lockdown, working from home-yeah, we're reading 7 year old threads. Go figure!


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## MZUNGUKICHAA (Jan 24, 2021)

Ian said:


> Yikes!
> I wonder how the public would react to beekeepers covering their hives with cow dung.


You would just have to remind the public that everyone has plus minus 30 trillion bacteria in their guts!


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

I find it counter-productive to be trying to replicate the exact technology of by-gone age.

Instead, look the good attributes of the skep - *the energy efficiency (due to its geometry and small size.)*
Then try to replicate the same energy efficiency using the modern materials and technology.
No need to copy over the negatives, i.e. virtual impossibility to manage the hive OR the know-how of the making proper skeps OR the need to find some natural, unpolluted cow dung .

No need for radical "dung-or-nothing" approach.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

MZUNGUKICHAA said:


> You would just have to remind the public that everyone has plus minus 30 trillion bacteria in their guts!


It is true about bacteria and a well known fact but really a tangent.

Why complicate one's life with learning the skep construction and searching for the proper cow dung (NOT easy!).
All the while highly energy efficient materials are filling up the recycling dumpsters as we speak - just need to utilize them for hive construction.


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## Tigger19687 (Dec 27, 2014)

LarryBud said:


> It's the middle of the winter-we're bored, bee's around here are in a (hopefully) deep cluster, it's dark, 20 degrees, COVID lockdown, working from home-yeah, we're reading 7 year old threads. Go figure!


Yup i know that and we had a discussion about new people bumping extremely old threads not too long ago.
I was just pointing it out in case they were actually going to stick around.


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## MZUNGUKICHAA (Jan 24, 2021)

GregV said:


> I find it counter-productive to be trying to replicate the exact technology of by-gone age.
> 
> Instead, look the good attributes of the skep - *the energy efficiency (due to its geometry and small size.)*
> Then try to replicate the same energy efficiency using the modern materials and technology.
> ...


I live in Africa , and have access to free range Cape buffalo dung , so no problem here.


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## MZUNGUKICHAA (Jan 24, 2021)

GregV said:


> It is true about bacteria and a well known fact but really a tangent.
> 
> Why complicate one's life with learning the skep construction and searching for the proper cow dung (NOT easy!).
> All the while highly energy efficient materials are filling up the recycling dumpsters as we speak - just need to utilize them for hive construction.


I saw them covering cardboard boxes with cowdung in Botswana in the 1980s, in order to make top bar hives, so the only cost was wood to make the bars. I make top bar hives now and eliminate the wood cost by using rounded bars cut from tree branches in the forest. Cost of wax remains to bait the hive as well as a suitable building to keep the rain off the hives.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

MZUNGUKICHAA said:


> I live in Africa , and have access to free range Cape buffalo dung , so no problem here.


Well then, in Africa you needn't worry as much about energy efficiency of a skep - you don't have a true winter.
You truly can keep bees in most any cardboard box (under the rain protection).
No need to walk around collecting dung, risking the buffalo running into you.
Better yet, you don't even need to make the skeps - the most difficult part.
No need to make proper top bars either (that is a Western over-engineered approach) - mostly straight sticks covered over with an old rag will do just as well.


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## MZUNGUKICHAA (Jan 24, 2021)

GregV said:


> Well then, in Africa you needn't worry as much about energy efficiency of a skep - you don't have a true winter.
> You truly can keep bees in most any cardboard box (under the rain protection).
> No need to walk around collecting dung, risking the buffalo running into you.
> Better yet, you don't even need to make the skeps - the most difficult part.
> No need to make proper top bars either (that is a Western over-engineered approach) - mostly straight sticks covered over with an old rag will do just as well.


The dung is useful. the bees like it . I like it. If you use a straight box the bees chew out holes in the cardboard.Better to coat it inside and out.


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