Skep making course with Jane Sellers at Ashford Heritage Centre, Saturday 16th March 2019 from 10.00am – 5.00pm.
Price – around €80 depending on numbers. This includes full instruction and sufficient materials (long stemmed wheat straw and rattan binding) to complete a standard size swarm skep 11”x13″.
Tools will be provided but bring scissors, and a bodkin if you have one.
Four Bee Skeps, small domed grass, small domed oaten straw, two swarm skeps
Tea and Coffee will be available but please bring your own packed lunch.
Please note – skep-making is time consuming. During the course of the day you will learn how to make a skep. You might not complete it, but you will leave with the know-how and materials to finish it at home.
Please also note – there are maximum of 10 places available so if you are interested please email info@janesbees.ie to book your place.
Swarm skep made from flowering stems of purple moor grass
The straw skep is a familiar part of the beekeeper’s equipment. Nowadays they are used primarily to gather summer swarms and winter cobwebs but in the past, skeps were used to hive bees all year round. Continue reading Skeps and Skep Beekeeping→
Coltsfoot is in bloom now – 9th March 2017. It is an Irish native and a member of the aster family – their asterness is obvious in this rather poor header photograph.
I didn’t realise the bees visit this plant but here is the evidence – note the lemon yellow pollen loads.
Coltsfoot is unusual in that the flowers come out before any leaves are visible. The heart shaped leaves come along later and are not at all like a dandelion.
It is thought that Coltsfoot flowers are a cure for coughs.
You know how we all go on about how there’s a law out there that says farmers should remove ragwort from their land or face the consequences?
Well beekeepers, read this and weep – the full list of ‘Invasive Species and Noxious Weeds’ as specified by the Department of Agriculture is as follows: Continue reading Noxious Weeds!→
