Tell the Bees

The ancient Egyptians revered honeybees as messengers from the gods, They called them “Tears of Ra’, and used the bee as a symbol to represent Lower Egypt in the Royal hieroglyph. Later in Celtic mythology honey bees were regarded as messengers between our world and the spirit realm and were associated with wisdom garnered from the otherworld. This folklore persisted through to Christian times. For centuries, beekeepers across Europe have kept up this ancient tradition of honeybees being messengers through "telling the bees". 

 

There are plenty of beekeepers that continue the tradition of keeping the bees informed of any family news in the household, marriages, births and especially deaths. Beekeepers also need to talk to the bees in calm voices and never use harsh words for fear of upsetting the bees. There is a scientific basis for the last sentence. Bees are sensitive to pheromes (chemical signatures) and vibration, rough language creates vibrations and a person in an elevated state of excitement (fear or anger) give off pheromes both of which the bees detect and to which they react.  

 

The death of the beekeeper required the new beekeeper to introduce themselves formally as their new owner and ask for their acceptance as their new master/mistress. It was said that not doing this would encourage the bees to desert the hive or the colony to stop producing honey or even die. In truth it is very natural and easy to talk to the bees.