Skep hive "Sapetka"
Picking the hive:
the bottom
body
component "A" is a natural fiber flax
component "B" is a natural modelling clay
Hive made of dry vines.
Hive comes not in a covered condition, components "A" and "B" for coating Packed in plastic containers.
For coating of the hive is required to mix the components until a homogeneous fibrous mass.
The plaster of the hive to produce only the outer side, the inner bees will cover with wax and propolis themselves.
Remnants of the mixture for coating store tightly closed container to prevent drying out. (in the case of dry mash by adding water).
Every 2-3 years is required to lubricate caused cracks in the plaster.
Hive Sapeda most often used for the production of swarms and large quantities of wax and honey of this type of hive it is possible to obtain in small quantities but of the highest quality honey in the comb without the use of chemical wax and honey products.
"In the Caucasus, in the foothills of the North Caucasus, Carpathian Ruthenia beekeepers from time immemorial has been keeping bees in saidah — domed baskets without a bottom, covered with clay with manure (the word “Sapeda” translated from the Circassian, “basket”). They wove flexible willow branches — vines (such shapetko called losok) or the young shoots of hazel, made of straw. Sometimes the clay, as the pitchers. Clay beehives are called Turkish, though they were common in Greece and in neighboring Afghanistan, and Iran. These primitive hives of bees defended their nests from the rain and wind, heat and cold.
On pchil'nyky tapetki put close next to each other, often for the total litter-stand or directly on the ground under one roof of sedge or straw. Bees in saidah — these are very tight and small spaces — proved unmanageable. For them, it was typical of the unbridled swarming. Family released 6-7 swarms one smaller than other. Often swarms themselves swarmed and family after swarming again for the second time, included in a state swarming and began to swarm. The whole treatment consisted in catching swarms, planting them in the hives and the selection of honey. When I selected the honey, sapeco (ber) laid on its side or turned upside down and a special knife cut pieces of the comb.
Shapetko think the oldest hive. The Greeks in ancient times led the bees in woven from the vines the hives covered with clay. I believe that the highlanders of the Western Caucasus borrowed shapetko the Greeks, the settlement which once flourished on the Eastern shore of the Black sea. With them they traded mountain honey produced on the rocks "
Shibarshov I. A. Russian beekeeping