Across the English countryside, and in pockets of Germany, Scandinavia and North America, beekeepers followed a custom known as "telling the bees." Whenever a significant event touched the household — a death, a wedding, a birth, or a change of ownership — someone walked out to the hives, knocked gently, and spoke the news aloud. The belief was that bees, treated as members of the family, would sicken, swarm away, or stop making honey if they were kept in the dark.
Historians trace versions of the practice to Celtic and Germanic folk belief, and to the wider idea — found in many cultures — that bees carry souls or messages between the living and the dead. Whittier's 1858 poem "Telling the Bees" is the best-known literary record of the English custom; oral accounts of the practice persisted into the 20th century in rural Britain, Appalachia and beyond.
In some regional versions of the custom, a small piece of the wedding cake or funeral biscuit was left at the hive entrance so the bees could "attend" the occasion too — treating the colony as a genuine, informed member of the household.
A 3D cottage-garden skep hive where you decide whether to perform the old "telling the bees" ritual — announcing a death, wedding, birth or change of keeper — and watch the colony's folkloric fate play out in real time.
Withholding news lets a "colony trust" meter decay and sends individual bees fleeing the hive one by one, visualising the folk belief that an untold hive would sicken or abscond; performing the ritual halts the decline and calms the swarm.
Pick a household event, then press "Tell the bees" to send the beekeeper out to knock and drape the customary token — or leave the news unspoken and watch the days and departures tick up. Adjust the hour to move the sun and the colony size slider to resize the swarm.
Some versions of the custom had the household leave a scrap of wedding cake or funeral biscuit at the hive entrance, so the bees could take part in the occasion as full members of the family.