Grisly Beehives

This somewhat sad-looking sculpture may bear a striking resemblance to someone recovering from a big night out, but it’s actually a centuries-old beehive called ‘bannkörbe’, or spellbinding hive in English. Let’s jump in and discover what all the buzz is about.

Now, just as the bee jokes have (maybe) ended, bannkörbe hasn’t been seen much outside the 16th to 19th centuries. They’re variations of the ‘skep’ beehive, which were common in Europe before the introduction of the frame-based hives we see today.

Skeps were inverted, dome-shaped baskets, which served as primitive beehives. They were occasionally shaped to resemble grotesque human forms, presumably because bees buzzing in and out of human orifices were effective at warding off evil spirits and protecting the innocent bees.

There are still a handful of skeppists today, mostly in Germany and eastern Europe, though as for the grisly bannkörbe variety only a handful still exist in museums. If you’re interested in more of the sweet history regarding bannkörbe, the authority on the subject is Aladin Borioli, who’s recently released a curious little book on the subject.

While many enthusiasts are getting into flow-hives, why not buck the trend and decorate your backyard with a grisly bannkörbe? I’m sure if the little monsters in Ghoul kept apiaries, it would look something like these.