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