The "Telling The Bees" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Talking with my friend Hal about his bee hives, or the lack of them, to be precise.  He had built his own boxes or hives, purchased a colony of bees as well as a Queen, and had begun to produce honey.  Went on for close to three years before he had lost his hives due to extremely cold weather as well as the bees disappearing.  Perhaps he hadn't talked to the bees enough.  Never knew that it mattered, but after reading several stories about having a talk with your bees and maintaining a calm and measured approach to tending to them, it makes a big difference.  

Hal working with his bees.

The bees expect you to take time to manage as well as talk to them on a daily basis.  The "Telling the Bees" is a traditional European custom in which bees would be told of important events in their keeper's lives, such as births, marriages or departures and returns in the household.  If the custom was omitted or forgotten and the bees were not "put to mourning," then it was believed a penalty would be paid, such as the bees leaving their hive, stopping the production of honey or dying.  The custom is widely known in England, but has also been recorded in Ireland, Wales, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Bohemia and the United States.  

The bee friend painting by Hans Thoma.

Little is known about the origins of the practice, but there is some speculation that it was derived from, or perhaps inspired by ancient Aegean notions about bees' ability to bridge the natural world with the afterlife.  Following a death in the household, there were several ways in which bees were to be informed and put into proper mourning.  One approach was for the "goodwife of the household" to hang a strand of black cloth on the hive while humming or singing a doleful tune to herself.  Or she could recite "The master's dead, but don't you go; Your mistress will be a good mistress to you."  Or the woman could say "Little bee, our lord is dead; Leave me not in my distress."  If it was the male of the household he would have to say in a low voice "that so and so was dead."  The key to the family home could be used as a knocker on the beehive to inform them of the upcoming warning.  The custom of including the bees in the life of the host family was a nineteenth century British custom and when European settlers brought their honey bees to colonial America, they continued as part of the family.  

John Greenleaf Whittier

However, the idea of telling the bees goes beyond the announcements of major life events.  Beekeepers have long communicated with their bees, sharing their concerns, thoughts and joys as part of their regular communion with them.  If the bees are not informed of an event, such as a death in the keeper's family, serious calamity would follow not only for the family, but also for any person who was to buy the hive.  It was reported that a beekeeper once died and the hive was not told of the death.  The hive was sold and the bees began to grieve with some dying.  When the new keeper found out about the problem, his wife hung a "piece of black crepe" to a stick and attached it to the hive.  The bees soon recovered.  One of nineteenth century's American poets and writers, John Greenleaf Whittier's poems is titled "Tellng the Bees."  A small section of the poem reads:
   

                             Before them, under the garden wall,

                                   Forward and back

                             Went, drearily singing, the chore-girl small,

                                   Draping each hive with a shred of black.

                             Trembling, I listened; the summer sun

                                   Had the chill of snow;

                             For I knew she was telling the bees of one

                                   Gone on the journey we all must go!

                             And the song she was singing ever since

                                   In my ears sound on:

                             "Stay at home, pretty gees, fly not hence!

                                   Mistress Mary is dead and gone!"

The intimate relationship between bees and their keepers have led to all sorts of folklore.  It is said that if you sell a hive, you sell your luck, bad or good, along with the bees and hive.  Instead, a barter system was begun so sales of the hives did not take place.  It is we'll known that bees help humans survive.  

Hal's Bees

70 of the top 100 crop species feed 90% of the human population and rely on bees for pollination.  Without them these plants would cease to exist and with it all animals and humans that eat those plants.  Without the bees the food chain would not exist.  The consequences are life threatening.  So, you see why saving the honey bees is very important to our survival.  If you are a bee keeper, such as my friend Hal, make sure you converse with your bees and behave.  It could be a matter of life or death for all of us!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.