When honeybees still lived in skeps.
W. Engels

The traditional beekeeping with Lüneburger
straw skeps was disappearing during the end of
the 20th century. Our film project with the IWF in
Göttingen was aimed at a documentation of the
heathland beekeepers tasks through the year. In
nine color-sound films, now also available as
video and DVD cassettes (No. Z 16), the scenes
of swarm apiculture were compiled, taken mainly
at the large apiary of beekeeper Georg Klindworth.
The management of the Apis mellifera
mellifica hives was close to natural conditions.

Maximum colony numbers were achieved until
migration into the summer heath blossom. This
honey was the main harvest. The colonies were
selected for intense brood production, linked with
large numbers of queen cells, and resulting high
swarming frequency. The actual selection goals
with carniolan bees followed during the last
decades are rather opposite.

In June strong skep
colonies casted a preswarm, comprising at least
one kg of bees. This young unit and also the
remaining colony later on produced several afterswarms.
Only the largest were given into empty
skeps. Until July this resulted in four or five
strong colonies out of one hibernating hive.

In September after removal of the heath honey the
preswarm’s old queen was always killed. In
addition, queens of weak colonies which had
produced little honey were always eliminated.
Valuable queens were stored in hand-made wooden
cages during these procedures. With the bees
of several summer colonies only a few strong
units for overwintering were established in empty
skeps.

Originally hives with enough stores left
after harvest of the valuable heath honey were
used for hibernation. Later on these colonies
were fed up with sugar syrup on plates placed
under the skep. Thus the traditional heathland
beekeeping was similar to the life of unmanaged
wild bee colonies, naturally adjusted to reproduction
and honey stores ensuring a successful
overwintering. Perhaps some of these behavioral
traits could be included into actual breeding
programs for tolerance towards diseases and
parasites.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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