Telling the Bees About Queen Elizabeth

"The official Palace beekeeper, John Chapple, 79, told MailOnline how he travelled to Buckingham Palace and Clarence House on Friday following news of The Queen’s death to carry out the superstitious ritual," telling the bees QE2 had died.https://t.co/7ZnRefH9NX
— Dirt Doctor (@HowardGarrett) September 10, 2022

There are many rituals and traditions surrounding the death of a monarch, and they are now being carried out in the UK following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. That includes one that goes back hundreds of years, but is pretty obscure these days. On Friday, 79-year-old John Chapple, the royal beekeeper, went around to all the royal beehives and broke the news to the bees.

"Telling the Bees" is a custom explained in a previous post that was once both a common courtesy to household members who toiled to provide food for the family, and a superstition to keep bad things from happening. Chapple went to beehives at Buckingham Palace and at Clarence House, tied a black ribbon around each hive, and explained to the bees in each hive that the queen had passed on, and that their new master is King Charles III. He assured the bees that they will be treated well. Chapple hopes to be the one who continues to care for them. Read more about the royal beekeeper and his duties at The Daily Mail. -via Boing Boing

The first time I heard about this was from an English murder mystery tv show called "Midsommer Murders" where a woman is killed and her friend mentions to the detectives that she'll have to go tell the bees their owner has died. Otherwise the bees will fly away and never return. It's a very good tv show and has been on the air for 20+ yrs now.

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do bees really have knees tho

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Hey, Colin, my dad was a master beekeeper. Here's something you might not know about bees. When a bee stings you the stinger pulls out from it's body and the venom sac comes with it. It will continue pulsating so you want to remove the barb and venom sac asap. Usually tweezers work best but using your fingernail and scraping the barb and sac away from your skin will work, too. I know, that's old news. Here's the new news. After the barb is removed put a drop of honey on the skin where the sting site is. Put a bandaid on top of that to prevent you getting sticky. Why the honey on a bee sting? Because the bee makes it's own anti-venom. The honey will immediately stop your skin from stinging. It works. I got stung and my mom did just that for my sting and it was like magic!

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