The custom of 'telling the bees' is well attested in Sussex. Bees, it was once said, must always be treated as members of the family and kept informed of important news, particularly deaths and births. Someone ought ot go out to the hives, tap each gently with the front-door key, and tell the news; some say one ought to put black crape on them after a death, and white ribbon for a joyful event.

 

If the bees were not told of a death, another death would soon follow in the household; while if they were not told of a birth, the child might die, or might grow up unable to digest honey.

 

Other people said it was the bees themselves which might pine and die after such neglect, as they might if one quarelled about them or spoke roughly in their presence, for 'they can't bear angry voices'. Others said they would never thrive if they knew that they had been bought, and therefore it would be better to exchange them for a bushel of wheat. If money did change hands it must be paid over out of sight of the hives; such money ought also to be a gold coin.

 

Related ideas are by no means forgotten even now. A man living at East Dean came upon the belief in the 1950s when his father died, for a neighbour then asked him if his father's bees had been told of the death. He said no. 'Oh,' said the neighbour, ' I was going to offer to buy them, but I shan't now, as they won't be no good.' And in fact, all the bees did die.

 

It is just as important that bees should be told if they change hands. During the Second World War, a couple living a High Hurstwood decided to keep bees. Not knowing much about them, they asked advice from an experienced man in the village, who came and told them the best place in which to stand the hives; having placed them, he stood back and addressed the bees: ' Now you've got a new master and mistress, and they are good folk, so see you work hard for them.' And turning to the owners, he added, 'They'll be all right now.'

 

Untoward behaviour by the bees might be put down to neglect of this ritual. At Twineham in 1952, a woman who had just moved into a farm was plagued by the incessant swarming of her bees, bought from the previous farmer. She asked one of the men about it, and he asked her whether the bees had been told that they had a new master and mistress. When she in surprise said no, he said 'I'll do it'. She watched him as he walked up and down in front of the hives talking to them, and when he had finished, the bees settled down.

 

Beekeeping is less common nowadays, and so no doubt these curious customs, the last survival of an ancient reverence for bees as intelligent and even holy creatures, will soon be forgotten.
But it is pleasant to think that when bees were still a common feature of country orchards and gardens they were treated as honorary members of the family, taking their place in the human life-cycle from the cradle to the grave.

 

 

 

 

 

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