The Stories We Tell: Exploring the Folklore of Bees in an Age of Extinction

Portus, Rosamund

Abstract

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, a curious news story was circulated. This story reported that, following the Queen’s death, the royal beekeeper had paid an official visit to the hives at Buckingham Palace to inform the honeybees of her passing. Whilst to the average reader this may have seemed relatively bizarre, this is a custom that will likely be familiar to anyone with even the slightest interest in bee folklore. It is a long-standing tradition, particularly across European cultures, that one must tell the honeybees about important events, including when their beekeeper has died or a new family member has been born. Per the tradition, if the honeybees are not informed of these events, those who neglected to inform them will experience ill fortune. In 1937, for example, bee folklorist Hilda Ransome wrote about how, not so long before she had published her work, a woman in Sussex had blamed the death of her baby on herself: she had neglected to tell the honeybees of the infant’s arrival

• Digital Artefact Type: Website Content
• Acceptance Date: Sep 7, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Nov 4, 2022
• Publication Date: Nov 4, 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 8, 2022
• Keywords: Bees, Extinction, Climate, Bee folklore, Folklore
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10127582
• Related Public URLs: https://niche-canada.org/
• External URL: https://niche-canada.org/2022/11/04/the-stories-we-tell-exploring-the-folklore-of-bees-in-an-age-of-extinction/