Jerry;

I have worked in Bulgaria quite a bit and one large beekeeper I worked
with on several occasions (Stefen Kurdov, Sysiphus Honey) had a large
commercial bee yard devoted to skeps.  I did an article on him back in the
mid 90's for ABJ if you want to hunt down a photo or I can send you one.
Stefen thought his bees preferred skeps as skeps had been the abode of
choice in the Balkans for many centuries.  His skeps were very tall as I
recall.  He was using skeps as a means of increasing hive numbers by
swarming.  He kept the skeps (several hundred as I recall) at his bee
training school and several apprentice beekeepers were kept on duty at all
times to capture swarms.  On that same trip I was taken to a farm Stefan
had recently purchased that was said to have a curse on it as the previous
2 owners had died within 6 months of purchasing the farm.  Stefan, a
retired MIG fighter pilot, would have nothing of that nonsense, but to
hedge his bets, he had a full-blown exorcism ceremony carried out while I
was there that involved sacrificing a lamb and a lengthy church ceremony.
To celebrate the successful exorcism we had a big blow-out party that night
that involved cooking up the lamb ( I was served the roasted head as the
guest of honor) and I was told we had the 'second best gypsy band' in
Bulgaria for entertainment.  Rare old times keeping bees in the Balkans.....

Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC

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