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Telling the Bees
An invitation to remember, to belong, and to speak...
There is an old tradition, once common in rural England and parts of Europe, called Telling the Bees. When someone died, the bees had to be told. The beekeeper would go to the hive and whisper the news, sometimes draping the box in black cloth. The idea was simple and profound: bees were part of the household. They deserved to know. If you left them out, they might stop making honey. They might leave altogether.
The Inspiration
In the past, people lived their entire lives in one place - a house, a field, a street - and so did the bees. Deaths and weddings were marked not only in church books but in kitchen gardens, in gestures, in shared silence. People wore black. Neighbors knew. The bees were told.
Today, we often grieve in private. We move cities. We send news by text. We take a day off work for a funeral and are expected to carry on as if nothing happened.
But what if we didn’t carry on…at least, not right away?
What if we paused?
What if we told the bees?
Our Partner
This autumn, in collaboration with the Bee Collective in Columbus, Ohio, we invite you to take part in a new version of this tradition, a space for memory, mourning, and home.
The Artwork
Telling the Bees is a participatory installation that invites the public to share a message, memory, or moment of transition, something you might want to tell someone you’ve lost, someone far away, or a place you once called home. Maybe something left unsaid to someone no longer in your life.
In collaboration with the Bee Collective’s exhibition Beecoming Home, we are collecting these messages as part of a live artwork to be displayed in Columbus, Ohio, opening October 11, 2025.
Submissions received through the online open call will be printed and placed into handmade frames inside a bee box. During the exhibition, gallery visitors will be invited to add their own messages, privately, anonymously, or with a name. These messages will be collected and preserved as part of an evolving archive.
Over time, this piece may move - to new communities, new hives, and new voices - carrying the stories with it.
Our Story
We were drawn to this tradition not just because of our family’s history with beekeeping, but because it speaks to something much larger, the human need to witness one another’s joys and losses.
This work is made in memory, and in motion. It begins with us, but it lives with you.
— Meg Gorman & Ann Gorman
Telling the Bees: A Living Tradition
A historic tradition, folklore, or something else
For centuries, in rural England, Wales, Ireland, and parts of Europe and North America, it was customary to tell the household bees when something important happened, especially a death. The belief was simple and profound: the bees were part of the family. If they were left out, they might stop making honey. They might fall ill. They might leave.
When a loved one died, the beekeeper would approach the hive quietly. They might knock gently on the wooden walls, drape the box in black cloth, or whisper a short verse like:
“Little bee, your master’s gone. Do not leave us in our sorrow.”
Sometimes the bees were told of weddings or births. A slice of wedding cake might be left at the hive. In some regions, new brides and grooms were introduced to the bees. Hives were turned toward the house or tied with red ribbon to mark a celebration. In a few places, people sang to the bees to let them know that someone had moved away.
The details varied by place, the words, the gestures, the season, but the impulse remained the same:
We longed to be witnessed. We wanted the bees to know.
Today, many of us live far from where we were born. Grief is often private. We no longer wear black or gather neighbors to mark the passage of time. But the instinct remains: to speak something aloud, even when no one seems to be listening.
To say a name.
To acknowledge a change.
To tell the bees.
