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#1681
Grasshopper basket ????
well done JW
n northern and western Europe, baskets made of coils of grass or straw, called skeps, were used. In its simplest form, there is a single entrance at the bottom of the skep. Again, there is no internal structure provided for the bees, and the colony must produce its own honeycomb. Skeps have two disadvantages: beekeepers can not inspect the interior for diseases and pests, and honey removal often results in the destruction of the entire hive. Beekeepers either drove the bees out of the skep, or killed them. Skeps were then squeezed in a vise to extract the honey. It is now illegal is some countries (including the USA) to keep bees in a skep because it is very hard to monitor and manage the bees.
Later designs included a smaller woven basket on top with a small hole to the main skep. This acted as a crude super, allowing the harvesting of some honey with less destruction of brood and bees. In Scotland, such an extension piece placed below a straw beehive to give extra room for brood rearing was called an eke or nadir. An eke was used to give just a bit of extra room, or to "eke" some more space, a nadir is a larger extension used when a full story was needed beneath.
A person who made such woven beehives was called a 'Skepper', a surname that still exists in western
Look back a few pages Pebbly at my posts on this one