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# The English custom of telling bees family news and draping hives in mourning
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/u-anglichan-est-udivitelnyi-obychai-pereskazyvat-pchelam-semeinye-novosti/
- Published: 2019-04-04T13:04:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:04:29.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Mores, Nature, Ethnography

The English have a remarkable custom of telling the bees the family news. Not only the beekeeper but his whole household must converse with the hives and relate the most important of what has happened, and it is especially vital for the bees to learn of a recent death. In days of mourning the hives were to be draped in black cloth. Should the little bee-cottages not be dressed in mourning, this might cause irreparable offence to the bee family, and bring about resentment, a loss of honey and even their departure.