In message <[log in to unmask]>, Automatic digest
processor <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Bee skeps are pretty, but I wouldn't recommend keeping bees in them.  In
>order to harvest the honey from a skep hive, you need to destroy the entire
>hive, killing all the bees inside it.
Not true.
Bees can be *driven* out by turning the skep upside down, placing
another empty skep above just touching at one point (like an open
mouth), keeping them fastened with *irons* (quarter inch dia wire bent
over at each end and sharpened to pentrate the straw - about 6 inches
between bends). Drum on the side of the lower skep. The bees will march
from one to the other, like watching a swarm enter a hive.
--
Tom Speight