Telling the Bees
The Bee Friend, by Hans Thoma, via Wikimedia Commons
I learned about the tradition of “telling the bees” when their keeper has died from Johanna Sinisalo’s sad and beautiful book The Blood of Angels. JSTOR has a fascinating article about the history of the tradition.
“Bees, bees, awake! Your master is dead, and another you must take.”
found on Miss Cellania