Follwing on from last week's post about the bee boles (bee shelter) in Hartpury, well traditionally this is how be boles would be built, in Scottish bole means recess in a wall. Typically 45cmx45cm and a depth of 35cm they were built for the purpose of protecting bee skeps, bee boles were typically placed on south-facing walls, protecting the bees from the elements whilst keeping them warm. The 2 main places these would be built were either into the side of cottages or into garden walls, there are records of bee boles dating as far back as the 12th century right up until the 19th century when the modern hive was created. Hive theft was also an issue back then so they would install a metal bar and padlock across the front to prevent the theft of skeps and bees, during the winter this also allowed them to slot in a wooden board to offer the bees an extra bit of winter protection. Although bee boles are not required with modern hives, to this day bee boles are still seen in garden walls and on the sides of cottages up and down the country. There is the IBRA bee bole register that keeps records of bee boles and other beekeeping structures that would have protected honeybees, if you think you have a bee bole on your property you can register it on IBRA. This pair of bee boles are in a walled garden on a farm in Ross-on-wye, although no longer used for skeps and in a wild part of the garden, the birds do use the bird box. I find it fascinating seeing these, thinking about how beekeeping all those years ago was compared to now. Being stood where bees and a beekeeper would have once stood, knowing how valuable bees and honey were then and how highly praised those bees would have been. If you have any bee boles in your property we would love to see them.
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