<<<<Have you seen them actually do this?  The swarm analogy doesn't make
sense to
me in this case because here we have an intact colony with brood.  In my
experience with bees (although I admit no experience with skeps), bees will
not
abandon brood.  Why would they do that in this set up?>>>>>

A bit of history this.  Skep beekeeping was quite common in rural areas in
England up to the early years of this century.  My uncle, who started me
beekeeping (not with skeps) in 1930, was one such beekeeper.  His father
and grandfather were skeppist beekeepers so he saw no reason to change to
hives.  Straw cost nothing and he was a skilled skep maker.  I often
watched him driving bees precisely as Tom Speight described.  Rhythmic
drumming on the full skep started the bees moving upwards to the empty one
and in a short time the bees were all in the top empty skep.  This was a
far better method than the old fashioned sulphur pit, which killed all the
bees.                   Sid P.