I thought this was an interesting article out of the Old Farmer’s Almanac 2019.
Telling The Bees
A swarm of facts, folklore, and traditions
By Tim Clark
For thousands of years, human beings have shared a special bond with bees. Bees are not truly domesticated; their relationship with humans is an equal partnership. In Central Europe, beekeepers gave their bees written contracts to provide shelter and care in return for wax and honey.
The orderliness and industry of honeybees and their loyalty to their queen are a timeless metaphor. In ancient Egypt, the hieroglyph that represented a king was a bee. When Napoleon Bonaparte made himself emperor, he wore a sumptuous gown decorated with golden bees. Even today, a beehive adorns the state flag of Utah, along with the motto “Industry.” Indeed, the bee has given its name to occasions of collective labor, such as a sewing bee.
Bees were symbolic of wisdom and morality. Muslims believe that the bee is the only animal that left the Garden of Eden unchanged and the only animal that goes to heaven. The Germans believed that bees were created by God to provide wax for church candles, and the Bretons said that they were the transformed tears of Christ. In India, the three Hindu gods Indra, Krishna, and Vishnu were called “the nectar-born,” and Kama, a live goddess, had a bowstring made of bees.
The Greeks and Romans thought that bees sucked their young out of flowers. In fact, queen bees are impregnated by drones in the so-called “mating flight,” far from the hive. But no one understood this until the late 19th century. Until then, bees represented chastity and were a symbol of Artemis, the Greek goddess of virginity. Beekeepers had to abstain from sex during certain ritual periods, and young women would parade their sweethearts before the hives, believing that bees would sting a faithless lover. Valentine is not only the patron saint of lovers, but of beekeepers as well.
In Greek mythology, two daughters of the king of Crete, Melissa and Amalthea, protected the infant Zeus, and the grateful god turned them into bees. Greeks also believed that is a bee landed on a baby’s lips, the child would grow up to be an eloquent speaker. The philosopher Plato, the dramatist Sophocles, and the historian Xenophon were said to have received the gift, and each was nicknamed “The Athenian Bee.”
A vast collection of folklore related to bees. A bee flying into a house means a stranger is coming. If the bee flies in and out of the house, it’s good luck, but it mustn’t be shooed out, and if a bee dies in the house, bad luck will follow. If a swarm comes to your home without your knowledge, disaster will follow. The Roman general Scipio once canceled an attack because a swarm landed in his camp.
Bees can even predict the weather, it is said. Unusually large stores of honey in the fall means a hard winter.
Some of the most interesting folklore about bees involves human-bee communication. Bees were said to him hymns on Christmas Eve, and beekeepers sang to their bees to prevent them from swarming. Swearing in front of bees was strictly forbidden, lest they become upset and leave.
It was thought that the public exchange of money for bees was offensive to them, so barter was the preferred method of acquiring a swarm. If money must be used, the buyer should leave it on a stone in an agreed upon place for the seller to collect later, and the exchange should never take place on a Friday.
The most touching custom was to tell the bees of any significant events in the beekeeper’s life. Bees were often invited to weddings, for example, and in Brittany and parts of England, betrothals were announced to the bees. The new couple would introduce themselves to the gaily-decorated hives, and pieces of wedding cake would be left there as gifts for the bees.
It was critical to tell the bees of a death in the beekeeper’s family. Many tales have been told of colonies leaving the farm or dying off if they were not told, especially when the beekeeper himself or herself died. A family member (some stories specify the youngest child or the oldest female relation) had to gently knock on the hive and announce, “The Master is dead.” Then she or he would beg the bees not to leave the farm. Often the hives were decorated with black crepe for the funeral.
John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1858 poem “Telling the Bees” relates such a story, and in 1906, Rudyard Kipling’s “The Bee-Boy’s Song” gave the bees themselves a voice:
Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees!
Hide from your neighbors as much as you please,
But all that has happened, to us you must tell,
Or else we will give you no honey to sell.
An ancient custom of no modern consequence? Perhaps. But following the death of England’s King George VI on 1952, thousands of England’s British beekeepers rushed outside to tell the bees.
Telling The Bees
A swarm of facts, folklore, and traditions
By Tim Clark
For thousands of years, human beings have shared a special bond with bees. Bees are not truly domesticated; their relationship with humans is an equal partnership. In Central Europe, beekeepers gave their bees written contracts to provide shelter and care in return for wax and honey.
The orderliness and industry of honeybees and their loyalty to their queen are a timeless metaphor. In ancient Egypt, the hieroglyph that represented a king was a bee. When Napoleon Bonaparte made himself emperor, he wore a sumptuous gown decorated with golden bees. Even today, a beehive adorns the state flag of Utah, along with the motto “Industry.” Indeed, the bee has given its name to occasions of collective labor, such as a sewing bee.
Bees were symbolic of wisdom and morality. Muslims believe that the bee is the only animal that left the Garden of Eden unchanged and the only animal that goes to heaven. The Germans believed that bees were created by God to provide wax for church candles, and the Bretons said that they were the transformed tears of Christ. In India, the three Hindu gods Indra, Krishna, and Vishnu were called “the nectar-born,” and Kama, a live goddess, had a bowstring made of bees.
The Greeks and Romans thought that bees sucked their young out of flowers. In fact, queen bees are impregnated by drones in the so-called “mating flight,” far from the hive. But no one understood this until the late 19th century. Until then, bees represented chastity and were a symbol of Artemis, the Greek goddess of virginity. Beekeepers had to abstain from sex during certain ritual periods, and young women would parade their sweethearts before the hives, believing that bees would sting a faithless lover. Valentine is not only the patron saint of lovers, but of beekeepers as well.
In Greek mythology, two daughters of the king of Crete, Melissa and Amalthea, protected the infant Zeus, and the grateful god turned them into bees. Greeks also believed that is a bee landed on a baby’s lips, the child would grow up to be an eloquent speaker. The philosopher Plato, the dramatist Sophocles, and the historian Xenophon were said to have received the gift, and each was nicknamed “The Athenian Bee.”
A vast collection of folklore related to bees. A bee flying into a house means a stranger is coming. If the bee flies in and out of the house, it’s good luck, but it mustn’t be shooed out, and if a bee dies in the house, bad luck will follow. If a swarm comes to your home without your knowledge, disaster will follow. The Roman general Scipio once canceled an attack because a swarm landed in his camp.
Bees can even predict the weather, it is said. Unusually large stores of honey in the fall means a hard winter.
Some of the most interesting folklore about bees involves human-bee communication. Bees were said to him hymns on Christmas Eve, and beekeepers sang to their bees to prevent them from swarming. Swearing in front of bees was strictly forbidden, lest they become upset and leave.
It was thought that the public exchange of money for bees was offensive to them, so barter was the preferred method of acquiring a swarm. If money must be used, the buyer should leave it on a stone in an agreed upon place for the seller to collect later, and the exchange should never take place on a Friday.
The most touching custom was to tell the bees of any significant events in the beekeeper’s life. Bees were often invited to weddings, for example, and in Brittany and parts of England, betrothals were announced to the bees. The new couple would introduce themselves to the gaily-decorated hives, and pieces of wedding cake would be left there as gifts for the bees.
It was critical to tell the bees of a death in the beekeeper’s family. Many tales have been told of colonies leaving the farm or dying off if they were not told, especially when the beekeeper himself or herself died. A family member (some stories specify the youngest child or the oldest female relation) had to gently knock on the hive and announce, “The Master is dead.” Then she or he would beg the bees not to leave the farm. Often the hives were decorated with black crepe for the funeral.
John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1858 poem “Telling the Bees” relates such a story, and in 1906, Rudyard Kipling’s “The Bee-Boy’s Song” gave the bees themselves a voice:
Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees!
Hide from your neighbors as much as you please,
But all that has happened, to us you must tell,
Or else we will give you no honey to sell.
An ancient custom of no modern consequence? Perhaps. But following the death of England’s King George VI on 1952, thousands of England’s British beekeepers rushed outside to tell the bees.
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