Telling the Bees

Bees, whose fossils date back over 100 million years, have long been thought to carry messages between the living and the dead. Emily Polk notes that they were “flying under the noses of dinosaurs while humans were still stardust.” In processing the death of her infant daughter, Polk turns to beekeepers and scientists to learn what these insects can teach us about resilience while navigating devastating loss.

HUMANS AND BEES have been in close relationship for thousands of years. The Egyptians were the first to practice organized beekeeping beginning in 3100 BC, taking inspiration from their sun god Re, who was believed to have cried tears that turned into honeybees when they touched the ground, making the bee sacred. In tribes across the African continent, bees were thought to bring messages from ancestors, while in many countries in Europe, the presence of a bee after a death was a sign that the bees were helping carry messages to the world of the dead. From this belief came the practice of “telling the bees,” which most likely originated in Celtic mythology more than six hundred years ago. Although traditions varied, “telling the bees” always involved notifying the insects of a death in the family. Beekeepers draped each hive with black cloth, visiting each one individually to relay the news.