Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

Videos: Heathland Beekeeping in straw skeps

26K views 62 replies 18 participants last post by  pbuhler 
#1 ·
Hello to all,

do You know "Heathland Beekeekping" in Germany? There are interesting films about this traditional way of beekeeping in straw skeps.

You can find 8 nice films on this site: http://www.honey-bees.de/videos/75-heathland-traditional-beekeeping-skep-apiary-videos.html

The films show the old European Heather Bee Apis mellifera mellifera (Dark European Honey Bee), kept in bee straw skeps. The film was made in the 1970 years in the Northern German area "Lüneburger Heide" near Hamburg. Today this traditional way of beekeeping has been replaced by modern Langstroth or Dadant bee hive magazines.

Best regards from Germany
Kai
 
#6 · (Edited)
...what became of the beekeeper? Does anyone still keep bees that way?
I think in most states and I know in mine, it has been against the law for quite some time now to keep bees in skep hives, bee gums or hives that do not have removable or interchangeable frames so that the combs can be pulled out, inspected for brood diseases and then return them to the hive. I would think that every pattern of straw or woven split lath hive or skep known to man would be of a non moveable/un-removable frame design.

I have no idea if this is still practiced where bees are housed in straw or woven skeps, but in the idealized past it ways traditional and necessary to kill the colony in order to harvest honey from a skep, and the colonies that suffered this fate most often was the strongest and healthiest colony the beekeeper owned, because in the romantic past the best colony is were the honey was, and were the honey was, is where the money is.
 
#5 ·
Hello,

sorry for my English :)

Only a very very few beekeepers work in this way with his bees. It is traditional and not very productive, but very amazing and "romantic".

My bees are kept in Dadant hives, but some colonies I have in such old straw skeps, just for "fun" and observation how the bees do without mobile frames.

I believe that they were straw skeps also in THE USA? Does anyone of You have information of straw skeps, imported to America from Netherland or Germany in the nineteenth century?

Once again, here all the films (in english) of the straw skeps:

http://www.honey-bees.de/videos/75-heathland-traditional-beekeeping-skep-apiary-videos.html

Kai, Hamburg
 
#10 · (Edited)
I just realized why skeps are housed under the roof of a shed. It is to keep the rains from loosing and washing out the cow dung waddling used to plaster the outside of the skep and sending the dung cascading down over the combs. Now I am not a prude. I would eat and enjoy this honey regardless and would like to have some. The up side to all this though is that keeping bees in skeps would likely create new and interesting honey varsities and flavors, like Black Angus, Jersey, Brown Swiss ….:D
 
#15 ·
I think there's something to be said about the genetic diversity of a time like that. They let the strong swarm and the weak die. That to me sounds like a better way of keeping bees than we do now where we suppress the strong from swarming and keep the weak alive through medications/feeding. In this way we are allowing the weak to spread their genetics while we are hindering the strong from doing so.

Amazing videos!
 
#17 ·
Can't say that I'm not to blame. As an amateur beekeeper I have two out of my 5 hives full at the moment. After my first year my main goal is to simply keep my bees alive and healthy so that I can fill all my hives and start a few nucs in the coming years.
 
#18 ·
Hello to all,

do You know "Heathland Beekeekping" in Germany? There are interesting films about this traditional way of beekeeping in straw skeps.

You can find 8 nice films on this site: http://www.honey-bees.de/videos/75-heathland-traditional-beekeeping-skep-apiary-videos.html
Does anyone have the videos on CD or DVD? Youtube reduces the size etc, and I would love to show these to our bee club members in our meetings. Some do not have internet and would probably love to see those. We have monthly meetings and I think we can add them to those like 2 videos at a time. I am one of the two member from Germany, and we do have 3 more that do speak German. The other German member has two bee houses, but I use the Dadant type boxes.
Kai, vielen Dank, thank you for posting the link. I also appreciate to hear that that apiary in German still exist.
 
#23 ·
well, I just re-watched the videos last night. The mention of comment that "Stocks are DISPOSED of..." had no specific location with the previous posters info. So I watched several of the videos closely. The only area that talks of disposing is when they're done melting wax and filtering out the solids. The solids ( brood cocoons, etc) are disposed of. Thats the only mention that I can find where those words are used.
 
#24 ·
Omie, he uses the term 'stocks' where we might use the terms 'colony' or 'hive' but distinct from 'skep'.

These are fantastic videos, however, I would never willingly keep bees in that manner. There's a whole lot of bending over.

I'm going to post them on my website and blog. The educational benefit is incredibly valuable. Every beekeeper should watch these videos in order to understand beekeeping history and why historically wax and honey were so valuable and how modern beekeeping equipment increased productivity so much. Did you hear how much honey was produced? It seems to me to be a better producer of wax and bees than honey. It seems that it would have made much more sense to shake out poor performers and replace them with the good performers that were robbed than just to mix them all together. It's also interesting how prime swarms are sold while secondary swarms are the ones used for increase. But, their system works for them. It seems they have selected for swarms who cast secondary swarms while here it seems a bit more rare.
 
#27 ·
Here is some more information I found on the smoker.

In Germany, originally for use inside bee houses, an unusual smoker rather like a large metal smoking pipe has been developed. Known as an Imker Pfeife (beekeeper's pipe). It is used with coarse tobacco stalks or herbal smoking mixture, it is blown rather than sucked. The picture was taken from the website of R. Meiers Sohne AG
Link to R.Meiers
http://www.bienen-meier.ch/default.htm

I also googled Beekeepers Pipe but still have not come up with a source for them in the U.S.
I did find them on one or two other sites all German.

Edit to add a link to another site. I hope it shows up in english for all of you.
http://bijenhof.e-motions.be/cataloog/level2.aspx?lang=E&groep_code=21J
 
#33 ·
#39 ·
odfrank, You can cut and paste the web address into google translator and choose for it to display in English.Kai, That site has responded to my direct email. They do not ship to the USA and probably do not accept american funds. If you have a better source for the imkerpfeife please let us know.
Thanks for the translation hint. That is a great website. Too bad they won't ship to us, not that we could afford it.
 
G
#35 ·
Did anyone else notice the tiny amount of syrup he was feeding his skeps in those little dishes? Maybe I've been over-feeding my bees, but they would pull a knife on me if I showed up with a little kitty saucer like that....Why do you suppose it has any effect to feed so little?
 
#42 · (Edited)
Update - I just got an email from these folks.....

http://www.bienenzuchtbedarf-geller...=p102_Imkerpfeife-Primus-mit-Kugelventil.html

They are looking into what it will take to send me an Imkerpfeife and say that they will get back to me this week. I had to use the google translator to communicate but so far this is my best lead. odfrank, give it a try if as well if you want one of these smokers! Their email is info@bienenzuchtbedarf-geller.de

-Little John

Also, I have gotten a PM from another member asking to be put in on the order. We could look at making one big order to make it easier and more appealing for a German shipment! Send me a PM if you want me to try to order one for you too.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top