Telling the Bees
There is an ancient tradition among beekeepers as Telling the Bees. This tradition was very well kept right up until the late 19th century, when for some reason it was lost.
The belief is that the bees being a central part of each family that kept them, needed to be informed of any marriages, births and most importantly the death of their keeper. If they were not told it was said that they would leave and not come back.
Beekeepers would come to the bee yard and share with the bees what was happening and leave little offerings such as wedding cake or small sweets if a child was born. Conversely if their beloved beekeeper actually died, the bees would be told, and the hives draped in black cloths on the day of the funeral, or turned around so that the entrance was away from where the body would be removed from the home.
It is also said that those beekeepers who work with them in a more spiritual or shamanic way, would tell the bees of their learning’s in the realm of magic, and thus pass on the wisdom of this knowing.
When a new apprentice takes over the bees from the shamanic beekeeper it is said that they would then “Ask the bees”.
Asking the Bees:
It is said that if you want to know the wisdom of the bees and to learn their sacred knowledge ask them what “the druids knew”. It is said that the bees remember…..
I myself have been telling and asking the bees since they came to live here with us and I have to say, theirs is truly a sacred wisdom, they are happy to share, if of course treated with respect.
Below you can see that I have moved two hives close together, this is because one of them is queenless….
I have been “Telling the Bees” that soon they will be merged into one colony, that their queen will have more room and a larger family. More importantly though I have been telling the queenless hive that the will be getting a new queen soon, and how wonderful she is, in hopes that they will receive her well, for if they do not they will kill her!
We will see if it works!
For now though I leave you with a video, and chat with the band Telling the Bees, whose cover image is above….
Miaërowyn
What a lovely post, Nikiah. It’s neat that in most keeping of any kind (crops, animals, bees, etc), that there is usually some long standing tradition of working with said keep in this shamanic fashion. The keeps will let us know what they need, if we only listen.
P.S. I love Telling the Bees
Valerianna
I’m curious to know what happens with the queenless hive… I hope you’ll give us the update!
Nikiah
I shall! Thank you Valerianna~
Nikkie
It is uncanny…..the synchronicity…I left a post on my fb page a few days ago about bees. They suddenly appeared in my kitchen and would not leave. They were so adamant I could not even wash the dishes. They found my bottle of newly made Balsamic Reduction and I swear they called in the heavies to try and remove the cork!! I made Mulled Wine (it is Winter here now) and they even got drunk on the sliced oranges I removed from the wine. I have a 16 month old granddaughter that lives with me and I was weary that they might sting her but, they moved around her, even landed on her sweater but never became angry and interestingly, she never tried to catch them. She just looked at them and carried on dancing and prancing not perturbed at all. By the third day I had to make a plan to get them out the kitchen so I spoke softly to them telling them that i will be burning some incense and that they should not feel offended but I needed to have my space back. I burned frankincense and some dried orange peel and it did the trick. Yesterday was the first day without bees and last night a blizzard of sorts moved in and this morning it was freezing cold and wet and raining. I hope they have gathered enough sustenance to keep them till it’s a bit warmer again…I know Bees are connected with the World Tree and I feel maybe i should look into Bee Lore. Is this what they came to tell me? Thank you for this confirmation that there is more to my experience than meets the eye…
Nikiah
Nikkie what a beautiful story! I wonder where those bees came from? Usually bees will not leave the hive in the winter, unless this was the first snow? I am so happy that they filled themselves up with such yumminess from your kitchen too-LOL
There is a wonderful site on more bee lore, mostly goddess related at http://www.beegoddess.com.
Also there is a series of articles by Andrew Gough on bee lore you might enjoy here: http://andrewgough.co.uk/bee1_1.html
Enjoy!
Debbie Z.
I love the bees. Always have, always will.
Christine Natale
In one of my favorite British series (only seen by me on YouTube) Lark Rise to Candleford, Queenie keeps bees and tells them everything. You can really see this in action! I’ll try to post one of the links below.
Nikiah
I shall have to look that up Christine!
Hans Georg Oswald
The tradition isn`t completely lost. It just seems as if it was lost, because the beekeepers don´t talk about telling the bees to protect themselves from being ridiculed.
-a beekeeper-
Nikiah
Hans I could not agree more! Nice to meet you, and to hear from another beekeeper!
mom
I am so happy for you–what a great life you are having–you and the music and the bees!Love and peace–mom