skep

Etymology

Late Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa (“basket”). Cognate with Danish skæppe (“an old Danish unit of measure equalling 17.4 l”).

noun

1. A basket.
   Old women crouched over bags of Siamese rice, skeps of red and green peppers, purple egg-plants, bristly rambutans, pineapples, durians. 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 115
2. A beehive made of straw or wicker.
   Three of the hives had been overturned and the others had been rocked to and fro. The modern hive is a fearful thing to upset; the combs are not static as in a skep, but hang loosely: when the hive is overturned they smash and pile up like a telescoped train. 1958, John Crompton, A Hive of Bees
   He prised a skep from its stool and held it out, inverted, showing the dirty wreck of combs, with the vile grubs spinning their cocoons. 1977, Patrick O'Brian, The Mauritius Command
   She installs seven skeps at the furthest edge of the garden; on warm July days it is possible to hear the restless rumble of the bees from the house. 2020, Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet