woven beehives with a circcular hole in the top

American Skep

I’ve learned that weaving a beehive with my hands is very much like weaving a meaningful life: Both take study, focus, hard work, and pure determination. I’ve chronicled my skep journey here from its very beginnings. Today,  I’ve woven around eight of these hives. There are very few of these hives being made in the States, although there are a number weaving masters in Europe. Bees have been wondrous teachers for me. They understand Unity and Generosity in ways that escape most people.

  • Beginning the Bee Year

    Sadly, my last colony perished this past week. I believe it was queen failure. The hive was full of honey, and not a single bee. So, for the first time in years, my garden is quiet. I’ve decided to only host four colonies this year—three skeps and my wall hive. So, today, I got to…

  • Looking Back on a Busy Summer

    It is early August, and here in the Pacific Northwest, we are hot hot hot. We’ve had several weeks on and off of 90-plus temperatures, and the ground is hardened and cracked. Many of my plants have burned, not for want of water–which I am pouring on–but simply from being made toast by the blistering…

  • 2018 Spring in My Skep Apiary

    Spring in the bee yard: Is there any better time of year? Here in the Pacific Northwest, we had a loooong winter with much dreariness, but only a couple events of cold, ice, and snow. Last autumn, I found myself with four thriving hives: Three in straw, and one in my last top bar hive….

  • I’ve Been Busy!

    Where does the time go?? Spring will be here—with bees swarming—before I know it! This winter I’ve been weaving, of course. I’ve wanted to make three new skeps before the bee season, and I have two done and the third in the making. I’ve begun making my skeps a full 2-inches thick. It is harder…

  • Drumming the Bees

    The swarm began like any other swarm. Just a big, roaring, exaltation of bees, 20,000 strong and taking to the sky in a glittering amber cloud. I couldn’t possibly know in those first exhilarating moments that by days end, the bees from RainTree hive would change my relationship with bees forever. The morning started out…

Beginning the Bee Year

Sadly, my last colony perished this past week. I believe it was queen failure. The hive was full of honey, and not a single bee. So, for the first time in years, my garden is quiet. I’ve decided to only host four colonies this year—three skeps and my wall hive. So, today, I got to…

Looking Back on a Busy Summer

It is early August, and here in the Pacific Northwest, we are hot hot hot. We’ve had several weeks on and off of 90-plus temperatures, and the ground is hardened and cracked. Many of my plants have burned, not for want of water–which I am pouring on–but simply from being made toast by the blistering…

2018 Spring in My Skep Apiary

Spring in the bee yard: Is there any better time of year? Here in the Pacific Northwest, we had a loooong winter with much dreariness, but only a couple events of cold, ice, and snow. Last autumn, I found myself with four thriving hives: Three in straw, and one in my last top bar hive….

I’ve Been Busy!

Where does the time go?? Spring will be here—with bees swarming—before I know it! This winter I’ve been weaving, of course. I’ve wanted to make three new skeps before the bee season, and I have two done and the third in the making. I’ve begun making my skeps a full 2-inches thick. It is harder…

My First Skep-Making Class! (…and how to request a class in your area…)

It’s been a year and a half since my Sun Hive workshop, where I first learned how to start weaving straw hives. I love my Sun Hive, but honestly, I love the little skeps more, so that’s where I’ve put my efforts. I’ve been working on these little hives pretty much in isolation, so to…

Drumming the Bees

The swarm began like any other swarm. Just a big, roaring, exaltation of bees, 20,000 strong and taking to the sky in a glittering amber cloud. I couldn’t possibly know in those first exhilarating moments that by days end, the bees from RainTree hive would change my relationship with bees forever. The morning started out…

The People’s Sun Hive: Keeping Bees in Straw

It has been five months since I brought my bright and beautiful Sun Hive home, and just three months since I escorted a small cast swarm up a wooden ramp and into its dark and enfolding interior. Small the swarm may have been, but the bees took to the woven hive like they had been…

Autumn in the BeeYard

Yesterday morning dawned foggy and cold. In my morning walkabout in the backyard, I noted the first bronze and peach leaves crowning the top of our old vine maple and the brown heads of the bending goldenrod. Fresh borage plants are poking up happy blue flowers and yet one more small, self-sewn crop of phacelia…

Bees In Straw

In 2014, I fell in love with the idea of keeping bees in skeps, old-fashioned traditional  hives of woven straw or grass. Michael Thiele was hinting at hosting the first Sun Hive workshop (a type of skep) in the United States, and I knew–come hell or high water–I would be at that class. In the…

  • Tripping

    BySusan Chernak

    Okay, the photos have nothing much to do with what follows, but what follows is long, and pictures will give you a place to breathe… “You are in the pipeline now,” my counselor Harry said as the dose of psychedelic mushrooms began to kick into my system. I was stretched out on a small bed…

  • Jane

    BySusan Chernak

    I was going to title this little piece “We Are Jane,” but it felt too grandiose, and a bit pugnacious, as though I were daring anyone to argue the point. Most of us are not Jane Goodall. Her loss was a gut punch to me and to the world. Jane was an enormous  sun, blazing…

  • Alaska

    BySusan Chernak

    As some of my readers know, I took a 17-day cruise to Alaska in May with my hubby Lee, and my brother Jay and sister-in-law Nancy. I wrote the following when I was on the cruise, and am finally getting around to sharing it after an ultra busy summer. Alaska remains embedded in my heart…