Pipes and Bee Keeping 1925

[seldom]

This is a fun video of traditional beekeepers. Note how they use pipe smoke. Especially starting at 35 seconds but really throughout the video.

Youtube Beekeeping With Pipes

 

[scloyd]

Really interesting. Thanks for posting.
I enjoyed this video as much as the ice skating clay pipes video.

 

[james72]

Enjoyed it. A lot of smoke coming out of those pipes! WTH is going on at the 1:10 mark? And, I couldn't help but think "Elephant Man" throughout the video, but I'm weird that way.

 

[seldom]

WTH is going on at the 1:10 mark?

The best I've been able to find online is that it was a traditional handshake when a hive of bees had been sold.

 

[wolflarsen]

That's an awesome video. Thanks for sharing it. I can't believe that I've never thought of using a smoking pipe clenched in the jaw to keep bees out of my face while working them. It's genius.
Those types of hives (skeps) aren't legal in California anymore. I'm almost tempted to make one anyway just because they're so cool! If you're a really hardcore skep beekeeper you cover your straw skep hives with fresh cow dung. It help insulate the colony in cold weather and is actually waterproof after being thoroughly dried.

 

[seldom]

Attached to another version of the same video is the following description. Sounds like they killed off their own swarms at the end of the season:

1925 - Bijenmarkt (Bee Market) Veenendaal, Netherlands
At the bee market in Veenendaal, Holland the principal buyers are the bee-farmers of the Veluwe, living near buckwheat fields and the heath. When the season is favorable, and the buckwheat gives honey (which it does not do always), the skeps may be filled in two or three weeks. In case they are entirely filled up with buckwheat honey they are emptied before the heath begins to flower. If not, the partly filled skeps are brought to the heath in order to be completed with honey of the heath. The latter crop being over, the bees are generally killed, and the bee-farmers await the next market to buy new swarms.
At the Annual Bee Market at Veenendaal, Holland, a hive of bees typically sold for around $3. Once a sale is made, the deal is concluded with ritualistic handshake, beekeeper and customer smack hands together hard, first in high position, then in lower, repeating.

Youtube Beekeeping Video With Description

 

[jpmcwjr]

I wonder who first built the box shaped hives. Those who'd been using skeps must have hooted, "Bees will never go inside those ugly square boxes".
Anyway, interesting vids. I also wonder who first figured out that smoke would calm the bees.

 

[seldom]

I wonder who first built the box shaped hives.

I know that modern hives are called "Langstroth Hives" after the guy who invented the ones currently in use with removable frames.

 

[btp79]

Skeps are definitely more on the destructive side of bee keeping. The closest you usually see now is top bar hives and while it destroys the honey bearing comb, you can avoid damaging the brood. Personally I wouldn't intentionally blow tobacco smoke into a hive, there is a whole host of pesticides called neonicotinoids that are pretty close to nicotine that are all over anyway. Basically none of my girls appreciate my pipe smoking!

 

[npod]

Great post. I enjoyed learning from the link.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"Those types of hives (skeps) aren't legal in California anymore."
Why on earth would skeps be banned in California :crazy:
They're one of the oldest kind of nest for bees......have been used for centuries.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[btp79]

"Those types of hives (skeps) aren't legal in California anymore."
Why on earth would skeps be banned in California :crazy:
They're one of the oldest kind of nest for bees......have been used for centuries.

That's not unique to California, most if not all states have similar statutes. It's not that a skep is illegal perse, it's that hives must have easily removable frames. This allows the bee keeper or apiary inspector to examine the colony and make sure the hive is healthy. American Foul Brood was the driver behind those laws if I recall correctly. Skeps are near impossible to thoroughly inspect and harvesting honey from them basically kills the colony.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Thanks for clearing that up Btp, all is now understood.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[btp79]

My pleasure, I had similar questions when I first got into bee keeping. I thought the a skep or two would be awesome to have in garden just for the look and pollination. Luckily the members of my local bee club "yes it's a real thing lol" explained it all to me. I'd still like to have a small top bar hive and have a shell skep around it or something.

 

[seacaptain]

Cool, thanks for posting.
All the high fives were a little strange though.