telling the Bees

The following appeared in the current quarterly publication of   The Potash Kettle, produced by the Green Mountain Folklore Society. It was submitted by W.A. Cate, Jr.

"Stand up close to the hive. Even in these wet and drippy late fall days you can't miss the busy humming sounds within the hive. Here, despite the outside weather, these little beings continue their work of rearranging their honey stores and keeping the hive warm."

"In the early days of our state before the standard wooden hives were invented, hives were housed in Skeps, that looked like an upside down teacup made of woven straw. Early farmers, faced with long, cold winters, sometimes carried their Skeps down to the cellar in the late fall to offer some protection from the cold and wind."

"In the spring, when it was warm enough for the bees to fly again, the Skeps would be brought outdoors in time for the apple blossom season."

"Buried deep in folklore is the belief that when one passes away, particularly if that person was the family beekeeper, it was important to go down to the hives and 'tell the bees'. Somehow there was something meaningful, if mystical, about the ending of one life, and the bee's work of pollinating growing things, thus bringing new life into being."

Source: The Potash Kettle, Quarterly Publication of the Green Mountain Folklore Society, Vol. 47, No. 4, Fall 1999.