For thousands of years, our ancestors lived immersed in their environments. Come, explore the many skills and techniques used all over the world to survive. Through recreating the equipment and skills used, we hope to gain a better understanding of our natural environment, and be equipt to sustain in it. We are a group of people getting together to share, learn and practice ancient bushcraft techniques and technologies. Practicing the old skills such as fire by friction, shelter construction, edible and medicinal food harvesting and preparation, bark containers, basket making, packframes, tool construction, flint knapping, pottery, traditional tanning, as well as many more ancient outdoor living skills. Our purpose is to reconnect with nature through recreating our ancestors skills and crafts. All experience levels are welcome.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Skep Making - Ancient Beekeeping

Date: March 23, 2013
Time: 11am to 3pm

 Beekeeping is an ancient practice. We humans have been robbing bees since the dawn of time. Honeybees are amazing beings that work tirelessly for the benefit of all living things. We truly owe our quality of life to the tribe Apini. Honey (the unpasteurized kind from local bees) has, in recent years, been an elixir of mine, so I have a deep appreciation for the honeybee. 

My thinking is that it is in our best interest to bee-friend the honeybee, and learn to support these wonderful creatures in their endeavor to support life. These are honorable beings, and deserve our utmost respect. Beekeeping is an integral part of wilderness living. Not only do they provide one of the most nutritious, healing, and tasty foods in existence, they pollinate your garden while they are at it. There are many schools of thought when it comes to beekeeping, but of course Ancient Odyssey, is going to practice the oldest method, which comes in the form of Skeps. 


A Skep is basically an upside-down basket, in which the bees are left alone to do their thing. This traditional method of beekeeping produces far less honey, but much more wax, and does not stress the bees by forcing comb structure and introducing chemicals. It is however, much more difficult to harvest the honey. Skeps are not commonly used today, as they have fallen by the wayside in replacement of Moveable Frame Beehives, which are the commercial version (so to speak). They are expensive, but easier to use with greater production. The other option for a sustainable, friendly to the bees, easy and potentially free (if using scraps) to construct is a Top Bar Hive. Maybe we will build one of these next year.


The goal of this meetup is to build at least one functional skep. I plan to bring a bushel of tall grasses, which should be enough materials to build at least one. To be on the safe side, if anyone can bring 2 handfuls of tall grasses, it would ensure we have enough materials, and may even have enough to build a couple more. The weft, I plan to harvest on sight. Hope for a sunny day, because we will use spruce roots for this. 


Skep in progress
Materials:
Warp=long straw or grasses 

Weft=spruce roots

Outer coating=cow dung, clay – this can be applied later.

Tools: 1-2” section of cow thigh bone (marrow gone),
bone awl.
Homework: 
I am a beginner when it comes to beekeeping, and there is A LOT to know. There is an informative series on u-tube called Heathland Beekeeping. Check it out and be sure to watch the video on skep making. It is titled ‘skep making’ and will give you a really good idea of what we are going to do. Remember, this is just one way to bee-keep. There are many more ways. The more information we can all bring, the better our collective learning will be, and that is after all, our purpose here at Ancient Odyssey. 


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