Telling the Bees: Meaning, History and How the Custom Is Done
What telling the bees means, where the custom comes from, how hives were told of a death with key, knock and black crepe, and how to keep it today.
For centuries, in farmhouses from Cornwall to Connecticut, a death in the family meant one more errand before the funeral: someone had to walk out to the hives and tell the bees. This guide explains what the custom means, where it is recorded, how it was actually done and how people keep it today. It does not claim that bees understand human speech or that an untold hive is doomed.
Contents
Telling the bees is an old European and American folk custom in which the beehives are told about important family events, above all the death of the beekeeper. Someone goes to the hives, knocks gently, often with the house key, and says the news in a low voice; in mourning the hives were draped with black cloth. People believed that bees left untold would stop making honey, leave the hive or die. The custom is recorded in Britain, Ireland, parts of continental Europe and New England, and it was performed for Queen Elizabeth II's bees in 2022. There is no evidence that bees understand the message; the custom is a ritual of respect and grief.
John Greenleaf Whittier published the poem Telling the Bees in The Atlantic Monthly in 1858.
Source/tradition: The Atlantic Monthly, April 1858
Mark Twain mentions the custom in chapter 8 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
Source/tradition: Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884
In September 2022 the royal beekeeper told Queen Elizabeth II's bees of her death.
Source/tradition: ABC News Australia, Sept. 14, 2022; CBC Radio, Sept. 2022
Hives were tapped three times with the house key and draped in black crepe.
Source/tradition: British and New England folk custom; Morley 1899; Ransome 1937
Bees were linked with the souls of the dead in older European tradition.
Source/tradition: Ransome, The Sacred Bee, 1937
People without hives speak the news to bees on flowers or light a beeswax candle.
Source/tradition: Contemporary practice
Bees that are not told of a death stop making honey, leave or die.
Source/tradition: No evidence; colony losses have practical causes
VERIFIED = verifiable in scientific or official sources · TRADITIONAL = historically or culturally recorded · LIVED PRACTICE = widely practiced, experiential knowledge · NOT PROVEN = spiritual interpretation, not scientifically established.
Quick answer
Telling the bees is an old European and American folk custom in which the beehives are told about important family events, above all the death of the beekeeper. Someone goes to the hives, knocks gently, often with the house key, and says the news in a low voice; in mourning the hives were draped with black cloth. People believed that bees left untold would stop making honey, leave the hive or die. The custom is recorded in Britain, Ireland, parts of continental Europe and New England, and it was performed for Queen Elizabeth II's bees in 2022. There is no evidence that bees understand the message; the custom is a ritual of respect and grief.
What telling the bees means
In the old rural household, the bees were treated as members of the family. They lived a few steps from the door, they were inherited from parents, and their honey and wax were part of the household economy. So they were kept informed. When the master or mistress of the house died, when a child was born, when a couple married, the news was carried to the hives.
The core of the custom is the death notice. A member of the family, often the widow, the eldest son or a servant, went to each hive, knocked softly and said that the beekeeper was dead and that a new person would care for them. In many places the bees were also asked to stay.
The belief behind it was plain: bees who were not told would take offense. They would stop working, swarm away or die, and bad luck would follow the house.
Where the custom comes from
Nobody can name the first household that told its bees. What can be said is that the custom is well recorded in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries across England, Wales and Ireland, and in parts of Germany, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland. Collectors of folklore in Victorian England found it in almost every county.
Writers often connect it with much older ideas. In Greek and Roman tradition bees were linked with the soul and with the world of the dead, and honey was a common offering at graves. Hilda Ransome's classic study The Sacred Bee (1937) gathers many of these threads. A direct line from ancient belief to an English cottage garden cannot be proven, but the association of bees and the departed is clearly very old.
If you are interested in the wider symbolism, our guide to bee symbolism covers it in detail.
How the bees were told: key, knock and black crepe
The details changed from village to village, but nineteenth-century accounts describe the same handful of gestures again and again.
The knock. The teller tapped each hive three times, very often with the key of the house. The key mattered: it stood for the household itself.
The words. The message was spoken quietly or sung in a low voice. Recorded formulas are short: the master is dead, or the mistress is dead, sometimes with the name, and often with a request that the bees stay and work for the new keeper.
The mourning cloth. A strip of black crepe or ribbon was tied to each hive, so that the bees went into mourning with the family.
The funeral share. In some districts the bees were given a little of the funeral food and drink, a piece of cake or biscuit and some wine or sweetened beer, set at the hive entrance.
The turning. In parts of England the hives were lifted or turned to face the house at the moment the coffin was carried out.
The main gestures of the custom and what they expressed
| Gesture | How it was done | What it expressed |
|---|---|---|
| Knocking with the key | Three soft taps on each hive | The household speaks to the hive |
| Speaking the news | A short sentence, low voice | The bees are told first-hand, as family |
| Black crepe or ribbon | Tied around or pinned to the hive | The hive shares the mourning |
| Funeral food | Cake, biscuit, wine at the entrance | The bees take part in the funeral meal |
| Turning the hive | Lifted or turned as the coffin leaves | A farewell to the keeper |
Temple Tip
The oldest accounts agree on one thing: the telling is done quietly. No smoke, no performance, no audience. If you want to keep the custom, lower your voice, say one true sentence, and stay a minute longer than feels necessary.
Telling the bees in America
Settlers from Britain carried the custom across the Atlantic, and in the nineteenth century it was known across New England and in parts of the Appalachian mountains.
Its most famous American witness is the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. His poem Telling the Bees, published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1858, describes a young man returning to a Massachusetts farm and seeing the chore-girl draping the hives in black and singing to the bees that their mistress has gone. Whittier added a note explaining that the custom was brought from the Old Country and had been common in rural New England.
It also appears in Mark Twain. In chapter 8 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Jim lists it among his signs: if a man who owned a beehive died, the bees had to be told before sunrise the next morning, or they would weaken, stop working and die.
The naturalist Margaret Warner Morley described the custom for American readers in The Honey-Makers (1899), and the historian Tammy Horn traces it in Bees in America (2005). It belongs to the same world of household mourning customs as stopping the clocks and covering the mirrors.
Not only deaths: weddings, births and moving house
Death is the best-known occasion, but the bees were told other things too.
Weddings. In parts of England and Germany a bride or a newly married couple introduced themselves to the hives, and the hives were decorated with white ribbon or a piece of the wedding cake was left for them.
Births. The arrival of a child could be announced in the same way.
A new keeper or a move. When hives changed hands or the family moved, the bees were told who would look after them and where they were going.
Some folklore collections add everyday rules that show the same attitude: bees should not be bought with ordinary haggling, quarrels should be kept away from the hives, and nobody should swear near them.
The bees and money
A widespread English belief held that bees should never be sold for coin. They were to be exchanged for goods, such as a small pig or a sack of grain, or paid for in gold. A hive that had been bargained over like ordinary livestock was thought unlikely to thrive.
Whatever its origin, the rule fits the logic of the whole custom: the bees are partners of the house, not property.
The Queen's bees, September 2022
The custom reached a worldwide audience in September 2022. After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, British newspapers reported that the royal beekeeper, John Chapple, had gone to the hives at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, tied black ribbons to them and told the bees quietly that their mistress had died and that they had a new master, King Charles III.
The story was picked up by broadcasters around the world. For many readers it was the first time they had heard of the custom. It also showed that the practice never died out among beekeepers.
Why bees? The ideas behind the custom
Folklorists offer several explanations, and they do not exclude one another.
Bees as household members. A hive is a small society with a visible order, living beside the house. Treating it as kin was a short step.
Bees and the soul. Old European tradition linked bees with the souls of the dead. Telling them may once have been understood as sending word after the departed.
A practical core. When a beekeeper died, the hives were often neglected in the weeks that followed, and neglected colonies do fail or swarm. A rule that sends someone to the hives at once, and names a new keeper, has an obvious use.
A place to say it. The custom gives a grieving person a first, undemanding listener. Saying the sentence out loud, alone in the garden, is a way of making the loss real.
Quiz: how would you keep the custom?
Four questions, no right answers. The result suggests a way of keeping the custom that fits your situation.
Voices from practice
Beekeepers often describe the custom as a habit more than a belief. Many say they would not call themselves superstitious and still walk out to the hives after a death in the family, because it feels wrong not to.
People who keep the custom without hives commonly report that the value lies in the sentence itself. Saying the news aloud to a listener who asks nothing back is described as a relief in the first days of a loss.
What we don't promise
We don't promise that bees understand what they are told, that a hive will thrive because you spoke to it, or that an untold hive will suffer. Colonies fail for reasons beekeepers know well: disease, mites, weather, poor forage and neglect.
We also don't offer this custom as a remedy for grief. It is a small, old form for a hard moment. If mourning becomes more than you can carry, please talk to people you trust or to a professional.
Practically: how to work with this
A simple version that follows the old accounts and respects the bees:
- Choose the listener. Your own hive, a hive you have permission to visit, or flowers where bees are feeding. Indoors, a beeswax candle can stand in.
- Approach calmly. Stand to the side of the hive entrance, not in the flight path. Do not open the hive, and keep your distance if you are allergic to stings.
- Knock, if you wish. Three light taps on the hive stand with your house key is the traditional form. Light means light.
- Say the news. One or two sentences in a low voice: who has died, married or been born, and who will care for the bees now.
- Mark the hive. A black ribbon for mourning, a white one for a wedding, tied to the stand where it cannot block the entrance.
- Stay a moment. The custom ends in silence, not in a formula. A minute is enough.
From our shelf
Beeswax Forest Fairy Candle
A figure candle poured from beeswax, the hive's own material. Many people who keep the custom without owning a hive light a beeswax candle while they say the news out loud. It is a candle, not a messenger; the telling is yours. Ships within 3 business days, from $21.95.
More in beeswax candles and altar and home.
Frequently asked questions
What does telling the bees mean?
It is a folk custom in which the beehives are told about important family events, especially the death of the beekeeper, so that the bees are treated as part of the household.
What do you say when telling the bees?
Recorded formulas are short: that the master or mistress is dead, sometimes with the name, and that a new person will care for the bees. You can use your own words.
Why do you knock with a key?
In many accounts the hive is tapped three times with the house key. The key stands for the household speaking to the hive.
What happens if you do not tell the bees?
Folk belief said the bees would stop working, leave or die. There is no evidence for this; hives fail for practical reasons such as disease and neglect.
Were Queen Elizabeth's bees told of her death?
Yes. In September 2022 British media reported that royal beekeeper John Chapple told the bees at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House and tied black ribbons to the hives.
Can I tell the bees if I do not keep bees?
Yes. Many people speak to bees on flowers in a garden or light a beeswax candle and say the news aloud.
Sources & further reading
- Whittier, John Greenleaf. Telling the Bees. The Atlantic Monthly, April 1858.
- Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, chapter 8. 1884.
- Morley, Margaret Warner. The Honey-Makers. A. C. McClurg, 1899.
- Ransome, Hilda M. The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore. George Allen & Unwin, 1937.
- Horn, Tammy. Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation. University Press of Kentucky, 2005.
- ABC News (Australia). Queen Elizabeth II's bees informed of her death, as part of a long-standing beekeeping tradition. September 14, 2022.
- CBC Radio, As It Happens. Why the Queen's bees needed to be told about her death. September 2022.
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