cottage garden skep

i have been planning on making a similar garden skep, for our garden, however, i did find this video slightly confusing..

do they leave the large hole in the bottom? if so, do they sit it on a board or something, how do the bees access it? should the lid not have some sort of attachment, say a hinge made out of the binding material?

was his binding material splints of wood? that was what it appeared to be but i wasn't sure, i have seen them done with raffia and wire before.

usually they are attached with a handle at the top to carry and move them..right?

is the body of the skep made of straw? I also understand that these are considered temporary shelter as you basically have to destroy the skep to get out the honey if you are going to be harvesting the honey, could they be left unharvested or would the bees eventually abandon it..what about bears..with the lid not attached bears would so easily be able to get into the skep, however, bears could easily tear one apart anyway..but i was wondering do they do anything to protect form bears, like place them up on a platform?

sorry for all the questions.