Recently my friend Holly-berry reminded me that I need to talk to my Honey Bees. According to the tradition known as “Telling the Bees,” beekeepers should tell their bees about important events in the keeper’s life such as births, marriages, and deaths. If they don’t the bees could get upset and leave the hive, stop producing honey, or worst yet die! Sadly last summer I forgot to do this ancient tradition with my Honey Bees. No wonder my hive died, and we didn’t receive any honey. Well I won’t make that mistake this year!
Some say this tradition dates back to Celtic mythology, when they believed that bees were the link between our world and the spirit world. Therefore, if you wanted a deceased loved one to stay informed, you could tell the bees and they would pass along the information. The Ancient Greeks also felt there was a strong connection between bees and the Greek Gods. By keeping the bees informed on family news, they pleased the gods. More recently in the nineteenth century, bees were considered part of the extended family and were kept abreast of important life events, as well as household gossip.
According to Colleen English in “Telling the Bees” (JSTOR Daily 2018), a beekeeper needs to do more than just talk to their bees. This ranges from giving the bees a piece of cake served at the wedding or funeral, inviting the bees to the wedding, draping the hives in black for a funeral, and even gently knocking on the hive and saying in a calm voice the name of the deceased. And please don’t tell Asa, but some traditions also require a song or poem be recited to the hive. I don’t want to annoy my Honey Bees with Asa’s singing!
I’m not sure I’m willing to go as far as to share my treats with my Honey Bees. But there is some science supporting the act of talking to bees. Obviously when working with the hives it is important to remain calm. Perhaps speaking politely and quietly while going about their work helps to calm not only the beekeeper, but soothes the bees too. Furthermore, a 2010 scientific study published in The Journal of Experimental Biology found that bees could recognize and remember human faces associated with giving them the sugar water that they craved. Although the verdict is still out on how good they are at differentiating individual faces, the same way they can distinguish between flowers, it does stand to reason that if someone who was considered a good source of sugar water disappears, this may upset the bees. Therefore telling them that the person died could be helpful.
In 2019 a team of researchers at Virginia Tech took this a step further, and began studying how to not only talk to bees but to communicate with them. After all, why should bees only have to listen to us? Perhaps they have something to say! They studied how bees communicate, and painstakingly analyzed the dance bees perform to tell each other important information such as where the best sources of pollen can be found. The scientists are now working on how to use this information to better build a relationship between bees and humans.
I’m not sure any family “news” I have to tell my Honey Bees will result in a happy hive or more importantly additional honey. However, just like when we went wassailing for our apple trees, I’m not taking any chances and will do this ancient ritual! So if you’ll please excuse me, considering today is World Bee Day there is no time like the present to start talking to my Honey Bees!
