Bee bole

A bee bole is a cavity or alcove in a wall (the Scots word bole means a recess in a wall). A skep is placed in the bee bole. Before the development of modern bee hives (such as the design published by Lorenzo Langstroth in 1853), the use of bee boles was a practical way of keeping bees in some parts of Britain, although most beekeepers kept their skeps in the open covered by items suitable for the purpose, such as old pots or sacking. The bee bole helped to keep the wind and rain away from the skep and the bees living inside. Bee keeping was a very common activity in the past before sugar became plentiful and affordable as a sweetener. Demand was also a high for beeswax for candles, especially from the prereformation churches, cathedrals, and abbeys; tithes and rents were often paid in honey and/or beeswax, or even bee swarms.

Bee boles and other protective structures for skeps are found across almost the whole of the British Isles, particularly in areas exposed to wind and/or rain, such as eastern Scotland, northern and south-western England, and parts of Wales. Bee boles have also been recorded in certain areas of France (144 sets by 2004), and a few are known to exist elsewhere in Europe. Other names for bee boles include bee holes, bee shells (Cumbria), bee keps (Cumbria), bee niches (Derbyshire), bee walls (Gloucestershire), bee houses (Yorkshire), bee boxes (Kent) and bee garths.

The purpose of a bee skep was to house bees so that wax and honey could be obtained. The bees were often kept in gardens or orchards where there were flowers providing nectar and pollen. A further benefit was that the bees pollinated the flowers, although this was not discovered until 1750. Among the many walled gardens with bee boles, two fine examples at properties open to the public are: Packwood House, Warwickshire (Register No. 0015) and Brodick Castle on Arran (Register No. 1078).

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