• Foreword by Dr Nicola Bradbear
• Introduction
  1. Bee biology
  2. Bees and humans
  3. Beekeeping history
  4. What is a skep?
  5. Skep making today
  6. Looking to the future

1. Myth, Folklore and Superstition
   1. African traditions
   2. Hindu traditions
   3. Greek myths
   4. Roman myths
   5. British myths and superstitions
   6. Beekeeping superstitions
   7. Bees in the human life cycle
   8. Honeyed words
   9. Blessed bee
   10. Bees and royalty
   11. Bees and chastity
   12. The bears and the bees
2. Bees and Hive Symbolism
   1. The UK
   2. The USA
   3. Beehive buildings
   4. Symbols of industry
3. Revd Charles Butler
   1. The ‘Father of English Beekeeping’
4. Making a Skep
   1. Size
   2. Straw
   3. Lapping
   4. Tools
   5. Making the first rowl
   6. Making the second rowl
   7. Continuing down the skep
   8. Joining in new laps
   9. Working the dome
   10. Working up the sides
   11. Finishing off
   12. Making a door
   13. Letterbox entrance
   14. ‘Sticking’ the hive
   15. Clooming
   16. Fashioning a base
5. Making Hackles
   1. Making a Butler-style hackle
   2. Making an Alston-style hackle
   3. Other shelters
6. Skep Beekeeping
   1. Swarming
   2. Swarm-gathering
   3. Skep husbandry
7. The Harvest Home
   1. When to harvest
   2. How to harvest
   3. Making a flat-topped skep
   4. Uncapped honeycomb
8. Processing
   1. Honeycomb
   2. Wax
9. Mead and Metheglin
   1. Making mead
   2. Drinking vessels

• The End ...
  1. Acknowledgements
  2. Glossary
  3. Bibliography
  4. Index

REVIEW BY NORMAN CARRECK NDB THE BEEKEEPERS QUARTERLY No.164, JUNE 2026

This book is a treat. Chris Park is well known as a skep beekeeper and maker who regularly runs skep making workshops at the National Honey Show and BBKA Spring Convention. As might be expected, therefore, this book provides step by step instructions on how to make one, but it holds much, much more…

I have often used straw skeps to collect swarms, and I kept a colony in a skep at Rothamsted for a number of years. My mother’s house in Sussex had bee boles in its ancient garden walls. In the early days of my beekeeping, I attended a talk by the then editor of Bee Craft, Robert Young, and mentioned that I hoped to keep bees in skeps in them, and he was horrified, on the grounds that skeps cannot be checked for disease and are therefore a risk, and merely of historical interest. But are they?

In the introduction, and with a charming writing style, Chris covers bee biology, bees and humans and beekeeping history, and asks “What is a skep?”. The most common indigenous hive in Britain, Ireland and much of Europe is actually quite variable. Chapter 1 covers myth, folklore and superstition, featuring creation and other myths about bees from the African San people, Hindu, Greek, Roman and ancient British. Chapter 2 covers bees and hive symbolism, with skeps in art and architecture, mainly as symbols of industry. Chapter 3 is on the Revd. Charles Butler, the “father of English beekeeping”, a notable user of skeps.

On then to the more practical chapters... Chapter 4 discuses making skeps, beginning with the tools and materials needed, emphasising the difficulty of obtaining straw long enough for the purpose, as modern cereal varieties are too short. The “how to do it”, is an excellent step by step guide with photos over 18 pages. Chapter 5 then describes hackles of various kinds to protect skeps from the weather, mentioning other types of shelter such as bee boles in walls. Chapter 6 is a guide to actually managing bees in skeps, with a section on the advantages of skeps over moveable comb hives; something which is usually ignored. For example, bees in skeps use much propolis to cover their uneven internal surface, with anti-bacterial and anti- fungal activity. Chris emphasises the importance of checking for diseases such as foulbrood, which whilst difficult in a skep, is not impossible. Chapter 7 tells how to harvest honey, including “driving the bees”, whilst Chapter 8 covers processing, including cut comb or pressing, and how to harvest wax and make candles. Finally, Chapter 9 covers mead and related drinks that can be made from washing the wax left over. Chris makes the point that mead made from fixed comb hives has superior flavour due to the presence of bee bread in the combs. The book concludes with a thorough glossary, bibliography and index. All in all, a beautifully produced and illustrated book. Thoroughly recommended.