The tradition of telling the bees is thought to have come from ancient Europe and is believed to have origins in Celtic mythology. Of course, if you didn’t happen to own hives of bees, telling them when something of significance happened – weddings, births, and most importantly, deaths – would be a bit difficult. But if you were a bee owner, keeping them informed of important household events was something you must do. And it was believed that bees could communicate with those who had passed on.
This tradition is still in practice in many places, including Great Britain. When Queen Elizabeth II passed on in September 2022, the royal beekeeper had to tell the royal bees that she had passed and that King Charles III was their new master.
Black clothes were often placed over the hives for a month as a sign of mourning, but the royal beekeeper tied black ribbons tied into bows on the hives as a sign they were in mourning.
That may sound strange to our modern ears, but it was something they took very seriously. Failure to let your bees know what was going on was thought to bring misfortune. Possibly the bees would quit producing honey, the colonies of bees could abandon their keeper, or the bees could even die from grief. And no serious bee owner would want that to happen.
John Greenleaf Whittier even wrote a poem about this event. I’m not much for poetry, but I did find this poem to share with you if you are interested. You can find it here: https://www.poetry-archive.com/w/telling_the_bees/
Some people still carry on this tradition. I learned about telling the bees in an spisode of Midsomer Murders. Season 21, episode 3 is appropriately titled “The Sting of Death.”Is it worth watching? Most definitely.
The storyline? From IMDB, this is it: Barnaby and Winter are called to the stately home of a master beekeeper after he is injured attempting to apprehend a thief. The village of Granville Norton is abuzz with news of the missing bees, and suspicions fly when one of the locals is stung to death.
The episode is so much better than what the storyline describes.
More Bee Lore and Legends
Always treat the hive with respect and gentleness. If you can sing, singing around the bees is said to increase their honey production. I’m not sure how the bees would react if you had a singing voice that would empty a room. Maybe they would have pity on you and be thankful that you at least tried. But do not swear, argue, or fight around the bees. Bees are supposedly gentle creatures. Hearing swearing, arguments, and such will decrease their production of honey.
It is said if a bee flies into your home that you will be receiving company soon. But you must keep the bee safe or your company will bring bad news.
I can say that this one is definitely not true. No bee that flies into my house is guaranteed safety; it is pretty much guaranteed death. I have a dog who is a bee hunter. If my dog doesn’t kill it, I will because I’m slightly allergic to bee stings.
The Romans believed that Jupiter gave honey bees their stingers so that they could defend their honey. But when a honey bee stings you, it must die.
On a side note, I believe that wasps were given their stingers just to show that they are truly assholes. Wasps will chase you down just to sting you.
Honey bees are even said to help point out cheating spouses. If you lead a man you suspect of cheating past a beehive, he will only be stung if he is guilty of cheating.
If you happen to own any beehives, will you be telling the bees if someone in the immediate family passes on?
And i just thought that you all would really enjoy the following video about bees.
